


The Search for Heart

by Rem1con



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Friend Fiction, Heartless (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Heartless - Freeform, Kingdom Hearts II - Freeform, Self-Insert, cause if you want something you have to do it yourself i guess, listen there are no fics on this site with heartless as protags so im here to fix that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-05-03 15:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14572485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rem1con/pseuds/Rem1con
Summary: So, my world just ended, and I found out that one of my favorite series is actually real. As much as I would love to interact with everything, I'd rather just find a way back home and avoid breaking Nomura's precious story.





	1. Unfortunately, Sometimes There is Truth in Fiction

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason there are no fanfics anywhere that are written from the perspective of a Heartless. And, well, if you want to see something done sometimes you have to do it yourself. Also, since 2018 is the year of loving ourselves, its a self-insert fic, cause why not.
> 
> This is the first time I've ever written a fic, so any feedback would be appreciated!

So, the world is currently ending.

Hold on, I should back up a little bit.

First of all, introductions. My name is Everett, and I’m an almost sophomore in college. And right now, it’s storming outside something fierce. I’m not talking about the normal insanity that happens back home in Florida. No, I’m talking about an honest to goodness world ending storm, the likes of which have never been seen before.

I should know, considering the wind tore the wall off of my dorm room.

My immediate reaction was to scream like a baby, and immediately rush out of my room towards the elevator. Actually, scratch that, I’m taking the stairs.

It’s a good thing I was the only one in the dorm at the time. I don't want to think about having to squeeze past my two roommates. 

After getting out of the way of immediate danger, I calmed down enough to think.

How in the world did a storm like this sneak up on anyone? There definitely would have been an evac warning long before the storm started, and this one just started out as a light shower before picking up. If it was going to be this serious, we would have been told, and I would have been in my car on the way home.

I hit the bottom of the stairwell as that thought hits me.

Fuck.

I left my keys in the dorm.

Well, they’re definitely gone now.

Not that it matters, because I turned towards the garage just in time to see my car get sucked outside and into the sky, along with any hope of getting out of the area.

Now that I think about it, there’s no one else down here. Where is everyone?

Right as I think that, the door behind my bursts open and I have to scramble out of the way as dozens of people come rushing out of the stairwell.

Of course, when disaster strikes, it just has to strike me first.

Regardless, I need to find my friends, and some shelter. Thankfully my phone is always in my pockets. Pulling it out, I quickly dial the first number I come across in my contacts as I head to the laundry room ahead of everyone else (it’s not the best shelter, but it will do).

I wait a few seconds for my friend Amanda to pick up on the other end. All I get is a busy signal. Looks like she’s unable to answer.

I quickly scroll to the next friend in my contacts, Meaghan, and call her, hoping that she’ll pick up.

After a few seconds, she does.

I hear her voice shout through the speaker before I even get a chance to say anything. “Everett! Where the fuck are you!”

“I’m hiding in the laundry room. Where are you? Are you safe? Do you know where the others are?” As unlikely as it is, I still ask in hopes that she does.

“Lara and Ashlynn are with me in the bottom of the stairwell. I don’t know where the others are.”

Fuck. 

“I hope they’re okay. Can you call the others and get back to me? You’re the one with everybody's numbers.”

The ceiling above me shakes loudly , and starts to crack.

“Everett? What was that sound?”

“Uh, the ceiling above me may be starting to collapse,” I say, quickly moving out of the room. I knew it was a good idea to stay close to the door. “I’m gonna rush across the street. Think you can let me in your building?” I ask.

“Yeah, but hurry!” and with that, Meaghan hangs up.

Well then.

Quickly, I open the door outside to head outside to head across the street towards the other dorm building, only to look up and balk at what I’m seeing up in the sky.

The sky is a strange mix of blacks and purples, with thorn like lightning streaking through the sky. There are also strange tendrils reaching out towards the ground. And to top it all off, a big shadowy… thing. Like… imagine the opposite of the sun, except a lot smaller and pulsing and somehow sucking things up inside of it.

It’s only the feeling of wind from something incredibly large flying by and missing my head by centimeters that gets me moving again. What the fuck. Why did I stand there like a fool. I could have died.

I quickly make my way across the street, ducking and weaving through the thrall of panicking people, just barely managing to not get trampled as I make my way towards Meaghan’s dorm building. The door to the stairwell is around the side, and when I knock she quickly opens the door.

I scream at the top of my lungs, “Meaghan holy shit!”

She screams at the top of her lungs, “Dude what the fuck!”

Behind her, my other two friends, Lara and Ashlynn, are huddled under the stairs looking incredibly shaken up and covered in dust. Lara’s blonde hair looks frazzled and messy, and I’m pretty sure Ashlynn’s glasses are bent.

A calm washes over me suddenly. 

Ah, I’m panicking so much that I’ve stopped panicking. That’s never good.

“Did you manage to get in contact with any of the others?”

Meaghan shakes her head.

“Sam? Amanda? Colors?” I ask desperately.

“No, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone.”

Fuck, that’s very bad.

“I hope they’re okay. For now, we should just stay here and hope for the best.” What am I even saying, what could the best possibly be in this scenario?

We sit silently underneath the stairs for a few minutes, listening to the sound of things crashing into other things outside and the sounds of people outside screaming, hoping that the building won’t collapse on us. As time passes, I think about what I saw outside.

...That black orb. What exactly was that? It looked like something out of a fantasy novel or a game or something. That type of shit just doesn’t happen in real life, but really, that’s the only explanation that I can think of. 

To be honest, if this wasn’t real life and I wasn’t trying not to have a horrific breakdown, I would probably joke about how this is the part of the fic where we get whisked off to another universe and have fantastical adventures with the cast of whatever franchise we get tossed into.

...Of course, if that’s the case, that dark orb could be from any franchise. I mean, how many series are there out there with malicious dark orbs that go around destroying everything?

Of course, when you ask that sort of question, you usually get an answer immediately.

Black pools appear on the ground a little bit in front of us, like someone spilled a bunch of ink on the floor. Almost immediately they start to rise up and take the form of small creatures. When they solidify, they’re little things, only about two feet tall. Their heads were spherical and comically large compared to the rest of their bodies. But it was the two yellow eyes are wiggling  
antennas that gave away exactly what they were.

Ah, fuck. Well at least I know what’s happening now.

With a shout, I instinctively lash out with my leg, clocking one of the little creatures square in the face. I know it won’t don’t anything, but fight or flight responses work like that.

Of all of the fucking series that had to cross over into our plane of existence, it just had to be Kingdom Hearts.

“Everybody outside!” I shout, knowing damn well that I’m only staving off the inevitable. The only way to defeat those things is with either excessive amounts of force, magic, or a Keyblade. And since we don’t have any of those things available to use, we’re all screwed no matter what we do.

As we rush outside, several more Shadow Heartless spawn out of the ground and start chasing us. Unfortunately, we don’t get very far until a very large black mass forms in front of us. It’s humongous, with hundreds of tentacles wrapping around its head like hair, and a large cartoon heart cut out of its chest.

Ah, I don’t even remember what that one is even called.

As it raises its hand and slams it into the ground, and a large circle of purplish-black energy radiates from where it hit, before exploding, launching us all up into the air, right towards the black sphere in the sky. It’s effects latch on to us, and starts to drag us all towards it. The panic starts to set in again, and we all start screaming as we get pulled closer towards it. I’m not entirely sure what exactly I’m shouting my lungs out about since I’m busy watching my life flash before my eyes, but I’m pretty it was something along the lines of how I’m far too young to die like this.

The last thing I feel is the horrid sensation of being torn apart before all goes dark.


	2. It’s Time to Hope I Remember Enough About This Series

Ugh… Where am I?

I slowly wake up, head pounding, trying to remember what happened when it all comes rushing back to me.

The storm. The Orb. The Heartless. Being flung into the void.

As it all hits me, I almost scream out loud. Holy shit, did I fucking die? Am I in hell?

It’s only then that I notice the strangely empty sensation emanating from my chest.

Oh no, that better not mean what I think does...

I quickly stand up, and almost immediately get dizzy and nearly fall over. I reach out with my hands, grabbing on to thin air as if that would stop my fall. And that’s when I notice it.

Instead of my normal dark skinned hands, I find pitch black claws.

And then I fall over.

I quickly bring my hands to my face, only to find two antennae on the top of my unnaturally round head.

I’m a motherfucking heartless. Fanfuckingtastic.

I stand up again, this time without falling over. And take in my surroundings. There’s sand everywhere, occasionally broken up by black, obsidian like rocks of varying sizes. To my left, the sand ends, and the ocean begins. Rising up out of the water are large gooey looking structures made out of the same black rocks dotting the beach. Far off in the distance, the moon can be seen, so low that it looks as though it’s resting directly on the horizon.

I’m in the Realm of Darkness. In hindsight, it makes sense that heartless “live” here, but confirmation is always nice.

Now then, how do I get out here? I don’t see any corridors to other worlds around, So I guess I’ll just… start walking.

As I walk, I start asking myself questions that I don’t really have answer too for the sake of keeping myself busy. Questions like, “How is Kingdom Hearts real?” “How am I keeping a hold of my sanity as a Heartless?” “What part of the timeline am I in?” and the most important question of all:

“Do I have a Nobody? And if so, where are they?”

That’s the million dollar question. This empty feeling I have likely means that the missing part of me is out there somewhere. But they could be anywhere, and even if I knew exactly where they were, I’d have to get out of here first!

...Oh god, what if they get picked up by the Organization?

I have to get out of here fast so I can find myself before Xehanort does. I’d rather not have to try to forcibly remove him from my own damn body.

After a few more minutes of walking, I find other figures off in the distance. I slow down, and proceed to move more carefully just in case they’re hostile.

Speaking of hostile...

What am I going to do if I run into a keyblade wielder? I can’t exactly fight them, so I guess I’ll just have to run whenever I see one, since they’ll, for good reason, consider me a hostile and try to take me out.

Thankfully, the figures up ahead aren’t keyblade wielders, but more Heartless. Surely they’ll just ignore me since I’m one of them right?

Thankfully, I’m right, and the crowd of Shadows ignore me as I waltz right through them. As I pass through the crowd, I can hear them chittering about, forming what almost sound like words in a language to my ears. Even though the sounds leaving their mouths(?) definitely aren’t human, I can somehow understand them. None of them really say anything that sounds important in any way, shape, or form, but I do hear the word “Heart” a lot.

Speaking of Hearts, why don’t I feel the irresistible urge to hunt down and consume every heart I come across? Does it have to do anything with me somehow retaining my sanity? Or is it because there’s no one around with a Heart?

As I make it through to the other side of the crowd, I start to pick up the pace a little in hopes that I’ll find a corridor to another world soon. I know that some heartless open them up, like that Darkside (haha! I remembered its name!) from earlier. Maybe if I can find one, I can follow it through to another world! From there, it’s just a matter of figuring out how to open those things myself.

Because I’m busy strategizing, it takes me a minute to realize that I’m being followed.

The sound of a second set of footsteps registering to my ears causes me to stop. Whoever was following me however, probably didn’t expect me to stop so suddenly because they ended up bumping into me before I even had the chance to turn around. When I turn fully, I find another Shadow sitting in the sand where it fell, staring at me.

“...What do you want?” I ask nervously, expecting some sort of fight, before starting at the sound of my own voice. Gosh, it sounded so… chirpy? Cartoony? I’m not sure I like it.

“...” The Heartless tilts its head, as if it’s taking a moment to process the question I just asked before uttering a single word. “...Follow.”

“Follow? Why?”

The Shadow points at me, “Familiar. I Follow.”

Now I’m a little confused. “I’m familiar? Do I know you?”

The creature in front of me somehow manages to do a good job of looking confused despite lacking most human facial expressions, like a mouth.

“...Don’t know.”

It doesn’t know how it knows me? How would it know me anyway? Unless…

Unless it was one of my friends.

If I still had a human face, I probably would have paled enough that my skin would have been several dozen shades lighter. However, since I’m now a Heartless, my body just freezes unnaturally.

It would make sense. After all, there’s no rule saying that I’d be the only one who got split into a Heartless and a Nobody. But if that’s the case, then not only will I have to find my Nobody, but I’ll also have to find the Heartless and Nobodies of all my friends!

Let’s see… there’s Meaghan, Lara, Ashlynn, Sam, Amanda, and Colors. So besides including myself, there’s seven of us that need to be put back together.

Well, I certainly have my work cut out for me. But maybe, just maybe if I get lucky, I can find everyone without needing several games and a manga.

...I probably will.

But still, just whose Heartess is standing in front of me? Before I do anything, I should at least figure out who this is.

“Do you remember anything about who you are? Like, a name? Age? Gender?” Please know something… anything could help at this point…

The Heartless seems to think for a moment, as if they’re struggling to remember anything. Eventually, they simply say one word.

“...Girl.”

...Well that certainly narrows it down. Colors and I are they only members of our little group that aren’t girls. That means she could be the Heartless of one of the five remaining friends. I heave a small sigh. It’s not much, but even a little information is helpful right now.

I focus on the Shadow again, trying to figure out just what to say in response to her one word answer. I can’t really think of anything to say that won’t sound at least a little rude.

“...Well, since you’re already following me, just stay close, maybe we can find out more about who you are.” There. I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m brushing off her response.

It doesn’t seem to, as she simply nods a little and stands up, ready to keep following me. I just turn back around and continue walking in the direction I was going.

I hope I find a way out of here soon.

* * *

After what seems like hours of walking, I stumble across another group of Heartless, this one much larger than the one from before. It’s mostly made up of more Shadows, but I can see some armored Soldiers and some of the various elemental Operas mixed in as well. Towards the front of the large mob, A tall figure in a dark robe can be seen. It isn’t until I get closer to the crowd that I notice the green skin and horns on top of their head.

Maleficent.

I move a little bit further into the crowd, holding on to the hand of the Shadow following me so I don’t lose her.

If Maleficent is here, that means that, as far as I can tell, I’m either in Kingdom Hearts one, or Kingdom Hearts two. I hope it’s the latter, I don't remember much about the first game.  
Although… most of my knowledge would be useless wouldn't it? It’s not like I could just walk up to Sora and say “hey, I know your future because of a video game,” could I? And even if I could, just the mere presence of my friends and I could throw everything off. Ugh, I hope we don’t end up derailing the plot to much…

Maleficent raises her hands, pulling me out of my thoughts just in time to see a gigantic corridor open up in front her. She steps out of the way of the swarm, and almost immediately the Heartless start rushing towards it. I move forward as well, pulling my companion along with me so we don't get separated, trying to stick to the middle of crowd.

As we enter the corridor, we’re greeted with a cascade of purples, blacks, and reds, and the sensation of falling grips me. If I was still able to, I’d probably vomit from the violently swirling colors around us.

Almost as suddenly as it starts, the chaos ends, and my companion and I are dumped unceremoniously on the roof of a building in a heap.

Awkwardly untangling myself, I get up to take in my new surroundings.

The area around us seems to be a decently sized town with shingled roofs as far as the eye can see. There are cobblestone walkways going off in various directions and there seems to be a lot of construction work going on. Plenty of the buildings off in the distance seem half built (destroyed?), and there are a few people walking around. What really catches the eye however, is the large castle dominating the horizon.

As I take all of this in, I realize where we are.

Hollow Bastion.


	3. At Least I Know Where in This Disaster of a Timeline I’m in

So… Hollow Bastion.

Given that I can actually recognize the place, and that there are people walking around, it’s safe to say that I got dumped in the middle of Kingdom Hearts 2, which is good, because I never even got to the halfway point of the first game.

I take in my surroundings once more from the top of the building I’m on, trying to get a mental map of the place from up high. I might as well take the opportunity while no one will be able to see me easily. While I’m taking in the scenery however, something out of the corner of my eye makes me halt.

A kid with brown spikey hair and a black outfit that has what surely must be an illegal number of belts on it comes jogging out of an alleyway. Not far behind him, an anthropomorphic duck and dog come out behind him.

Oh boy, it’s Sora and his friends, Donald and Goofy.

I kneel down to make myself harder to spot, quietly urging my companion to do the same. The roof we’re on is a good distance away, but I still don't want to take any chances. 

Sora and his friends walk over to a small balcony facing the large castle in the distance. They seem to be talking about something, but they're too far away to hear. Their conversation doesn't last for long however, as Goofy glances to his left and points at something. I follow his finger just in time to see a few Heartless wearing what look like knight helmets (Soldiers, I believe) vanish from sight.

When I turn back, I almost scream when I notice that Sora has also turned in my direction, and made eye contact with me.

“Shit, get down!” I hiss at the Shadow next me, and we both try to hunker down further than we already were to get out of sight. Please let Sora think we left…

After waiting for what probably counts as the most stressful three minutes of my life, I slowly peak my head up over the top of the roof to see if they’re still there.

Thankfully, they aren't.

After confirming that it was safe, I tapped the Heartless next to me on her shoulder, motioning for her to follow me. We need to find a way to start looking for my friends, and there’s no time like the present to get started. However, since Sora and his pals are around, it’s probably best if we stick to the rooftops whenever we can.

…

...boy, some of these jumps look pretty big…

As I process just how big some of these jumps are, the empty feeling in my torso intensifies, as if it’s imitating the sensation of one’s heart rate speeding up.

Gulping at what must be at least a ten foot jump, which doesn’t quite work with my new anatomy, I back up to the other end of the roof, mentally brace myself, and start running in an attempt to make a flying leap across to the other building.

Immediately, I realize that Heartless can move much, much faster than normal humans.

Startled by my newfound speed, I end up awkwardly scrambling across the roof practically on all fours and sort of half jump, half fling my body across the gap, landing on my face clear on the other side.

Ouch.

Peeling my face up off the floor, I hear my companion land a little bit away from where I crash landed. Of course, she makes it over just fine on her first try…

Now that I think about it, she needs a name. I can’t just keep calling her “Heartless,” or “Shadow.”

Deciding to solve this issue before I inevitably forget to ask, I turn to her to ask if she wants a name.

“Hey, you said earlier that you didn’t have a name right?”

She nods.

“Well… I can’t just keep calling you Heartless, so do you want one?”

She pauses for a moment, and then nods again.

“Okay… so what’s a good name… Uh… Hm…” I can’t seem to think of any name that would be good. It’s not like I’ll be able to change it later. It’s gotta be really good right of the bat. Shit, how am I supposed to come up with something good?

While I’m struggling to come up with a decent name, the Shadow taps me on the shoulder to get my attention.

“Hm? Did you think of something?”

She nods and points to herself.

“...M.”

* * *

As the newly dubbed M and I continue to move across the rooftops, trying to stay out of sight. I run across a major issue as we start moving closer towards people.

I can feel their Hearts, all of them. 

There are a lot of them.

The warmth from their Light washed over me, filling me with desire and a pleasurable sensation that leaves me craving for more. The antennae on the top of my head start wiggling intensely and I can feel something in the back of my mind urging me to try and horde that Light for myself.

I freeze, and attempt to get a hold of myself. Taking the time to center myself, I push away the urge to go down and try to steal their Hearts, treating the instinct like an intrusive thought. The warmth and the incredibly good feeling however, don’t go away. Noticing that M is slowly moving closer to the edge of the roof we’re on, I grab onto her arm, holding her in place and snapping her out of the trance she’s in.

Jeez… no wonder Heartless go after the Hearts. If it feels this good to just be close to one, imagine what it must feel like to have one inside you... 

But I can’t just go around snatching up Hearts like a wild animal. That would be… pretty fucked up.

Making sure I’ve centered myself, I get ready to leap across to the next rooftop when someone down below shouts at something.

I look down to see a mean pointing at something further down the walkway. When I look in the direction he’s pointing, I see a trio of Shadows rushing down the path toward the crowd of humans. Almost without thinking, I get ready to jump down and protect them from the Heartless, when multiple circles of light pop up on the ground and move towards them.

When they touch them, the circles explode in a ray of light.

...Ah. I forgot there were mines here. And from the looks of the others down below, they forgot about them too. They must have just been turned on recently.

To be fair, I’m not very surprised that I forgot about them. The mines couldn’t hurt you in the game, and the last time I even played Kingdom Hearts 2 was about two or three years ago. I’m just glad I didn’t jump down there, or else I’d probably be in pieces myself.

Turning our attention away from the crowd. M and I start moving again.

* * *

After traversing the rooftops for about twenty more minutes, we stop to take a short break. While resting and watching the inhabitants of Hollow Bastion go about their day, I allow myself to think about my goals.

...I just realized, I don’t really have a game plan. Sure, I have an end goal, find the Heartless and Nobodies of my friends, regain our bodies and go home, but how am I supposed to go about that? That’s simply a desired result, I have no plan on how to accomplish it. No strategy or anything. How am I supposed to start? Do I find my own Nobody first, or I try to find the Heartless (Heartlesses?) of my friends? And what if I end up having to fight? As a simple shadow, I don’t have many combat capabilities, all I can do is claw at things and sink into the ground, and I don’t even know how to do the latter. Combine that with my pitifully low stats and any fight I get into will end with my destruction.

...If I get destroyed, that’ll be game over for me. Sure, I’d be able to come back if my Nobody also perishes, but how long would it take for Sora to do that? Or what if he never runs into them? I’d be stuck in limbo for eternity, with no hope of seeing my friends or my world ever again.

Shuddering at the thought, I decide that my first order of business is to get stronger so I can better defend myself. M could also be a great help too if she got stronger, and maybe she’ll even start to remember some things!

But… how do we get stronger? Do we have to acquire more Hearts? I’d rather not have to steal the Hearts of innocents, meaning that my only option is to try to snatch up the Hearts that Heartless release when defeated before they float away. The fact that doing so would delay the formation of Kingdom Hearts makes that a much more appealing option as well. Of course, it would be dangerous to keep tailing Sora and try to get at them before he gets to me, so I’ll have to find a way to defeat the Heartless myself.

Nodding to myself, I start making a mental checklist.

1\. Find a way to destroy other Heartless (SAFELY!)  
2\. Find out if more Hearts=more strength  
3\. Get stronger  
4\. Find a way to restore M’s memories  
5\. Find my friends  
6\. ???  
7\. Go home

It isn’t the most in depth list, but it will do for now.

I’m pulled from my thoughts someone calling out to someone else.

M and I look over the edge of the building, and see Sora talking talking to a female ninja dressed in black with a headband wrapped around her forehead.

“It’s Yuffie,” I whisper to myself. M must have heard me, because she turned to look at me, as if asking me who she was.

I decide to elaborate a little more. “She’s a friend of Sora, the kid down there with the brown hair.” 

I realize something as I explain this. If this is the first time they meet in the game, then isn’t this the part were-

As I remember what’s about to happen, several Nobodies spawn around Sora and his friends. They’re very thin, enough to be classified as anorexic, and have glowing blue lights running down the sides of their torsos. Their long, sharp fingers are also held together by what look like tight bands of leather. These, if I remember correctly, are Dusks, the Shadow equivalent of Nobodies.

Beside me, M hisses at the sight of them appearing, the antenna on her head wiggling furiously, displaying her aggression towards the Nobodies down below. I place my hand on her shoulder, ready to restrain her if she tries to jump down and fight.

Down below, both Sora and Goofy start to glow, and in a blinding burst of light, Goofy is gone, while Sora’s outfit turned to a deep red that signified the activation of his Valor Form. He gets down into a fighting stance, wielding two Keyblades, before launching himself at the Nobodies. Becoming a blur of red, Sora shredded his way through the group of Dusks with ease.

Watching him tear through those Nobodies so easily sends a shiver of fear down my spine. If we get spotted by him, that’s gonna be us getting torn apart.

Sora looks around to make sure there weren’t any stragglers, and then reverts out of Valor, his outfit turning black, along with Goofy reappearing out of a ball of light. After they move on from the area, I wait a few moments before deciding it’s safe to move without getting spotted by either Sora or his friends. But as I get ready to tell M it’s time to move again, I notice something down on the ground move. Two more Dusks slink out from around a building and move off in the opposite direction Sora went. Looks like Sora didn’t get all of them.

Unfortunately, that means I’m gonna have to clean up after him, because those Dusks were headed back towards where the townsfolk were shopping.

* * *

I start putting my speed to good use, traversing the rooftops back towards where the stores were, trying to keep up with the Dusks down below. They’re moving pretty quickly, and their fluid, unnatural movement is fast enough to outrun the mines coming their way.

Damn it. I was hoping those would take care of them.

Soon enough, they reach the marketplace, and people start screaming, running around trying to get away from the Nobodies. A woman trips over someone while trying to get away and falls over. The Dusks notice, and start to move toward her.

Since Sora isn’t around to save this woman, I’m going to have to do it. Quickly, I motion to M to follow my lead, and jump down from the building I’m on. Moving as quickly as I can, I charge one at one of the Dusks, tackling it, causing the both of us to go flying a few feet away from the lady on the ground. I capitalize on my surprise attack, and quickly drive my clawed hand into its face, killing it and causing it to disappear. I look up just in time to see the M finished off the other one. Quickly running over to her, I grab her hand and drag her with me down an alleyway before anyone can process what just happened. 

As we ran out of sight, I could only imagine how confused that crowd of people must be.


	4. I Suppose at This Point, We’ve Probably Become Urban Legends

It’s only after I’ve dragged M halfway down the alley that I have time to even think.

Letting go of M, I scramble up the wall of the alleyway, moving out of range of the mines following us. M scales the wall only moments behind me.

Now that we’re out of immediate danger, the adrenaline (do Heartless even have adrenaline?) starts to wear off, and I start to realize just how reckless I had acted.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong in those few seconds. What if my initial attack missed? What if those Nobodies hadn’t been caught by surprise? What if a mine had popped up right in front of us? What if Leon, or Tifa, or, heaven forbid, Sora had happened to come by? What if people start talking about us? We might end up getting actively hunted down by Sora and the gang, or even worse, Maleficent!

While I’m busy berating myself for not thinking things through, M sensing my distress, grabs my head with her hands and turns me to face her. She stares at me for a moment, as trying to figure out what to do, and then raises one of her hands off my face…

...And pats me on the top of my head, right between my antennae. 

Momentarily surprised, I do nothing as she continues to pet me for a few more seconds, before the ridiculousness of the situation catches up to me and I start to chuckle that slowly grows into a loud laugh.

“Thanks,” I say. “I really needed that.”

M makes a sort of chirping sound, as if to she’s happy that I’m not so worked up anymore.

“Right,” I say. “Let’s get going, I want to test out a little theory of mine.” Next to me, M tilts her head in confusion.

“So here’s what I’ve been thinking,” I explain as we start moving again, “Heartless, like us, collect Hearts. And, well, stronger Heartless tend to release either bigger Hearts, or more Hearts when they are defeated. So it’s safe to say that the Hearts we collect give us power. The more Hearts we have, the stronger we get. And if we want to get our own Hearts and bodies back, then we need to get stronger, which likely means we need to collect Hearts.”

M seems to think on what I said for a moment before responding. “...People Hearts?”

I stop on the next roof we land on, shaking my head. “No, we aren’t going to steal Hearts from other people. We’re going to defeat other Heartless ourselves, and use the Hearts they’ve already collected.” I look around for a moment before leaning in closer, whispering in M’s ear (antenna?) 

“There's a group of people out there collecting the Hearts that us Heartless have, and if they get enough of them it’s bad news for all of us. Every Heart we take from other Heartless keeps more Hearts out of their hands. Understand?”

M nods.

“Good,” I say. “Now then, let’s see if we can find some loners.”

* * *

It actually took us quite a while to find any Heartless. We had to travel pretty close to the edge of town before we started seeing some. There weren’t any people around, and the lack of mines meant that it was safe to jump down from the roofs. Like before, the other Heartless we ignoring us as we walked by them, assuming we were one of them. Most of them were either clustered together in decent sized groups, or were likely too strong for us to handle at the moment. It took us another fifteen minutes to find a couple of Heartless that looked beatable. There were only two of them, and they were far enough away that I doubted any other Heartless would take note of us slaying them. 

They were tiny, even smaller than us, and were shaped like salt shakers. They floated about three or so feet off of the ground, and were red with the Heartless emblem emblazoned on their center. I couldn’t remember what their actual name was, but since they just looked like a fiery variant of Yellow Operas, I’m just going to call them Red Operas.

As we slowly approached them, I spoke lowly to M. “When I say so, you get the one in the front. I’ve got the one behind them.” 

As we got within twenty feet of them, the empty feeling in my chest intensified again.

15 feet.

10 feet.

I could feel the phantom sensation of sweat forming on my claws.

5 feet.

I steel my nerves.

0 feet. We’re now directly underneath the first one.

“NOW!” I shout, springing forward to the next one as M jumps straight up to slash at the Opera above us. She slashes it directly on the bottom of its body, sending it spinning away. As I spring towards mine, I lash out with my claws hoping for a quick kill.

And I miss, falling just a few inches short.

I land sloppily, not expecting to fly right by the Heartless, and immediately dive to my right, dodging a small ball of fire that got blasted my way. I turn around to face the Opera, and rush towards it to try again, only to have to dive to the ground to dodge another fireball.

I try to get up, and cry out in pain as searing heat washes over my back from another fireball. Something that feels like it could be adrenaline rushes through me, and I quickly roll over, dodging another attack. I get up, breaking out into a sprint, circling around the Opera in an effort to try to get closer and keep dodging at the same time. 

Desperation fills me as I get close enough to try to strike again, hoping to finish this before the other Heartless can notice what’s happening. This time I manage to clip it, my claws shearing off the tiny legs underneath it, causing it to squeal in pain and back away, leaking a strange black goo that quickly evaporates into smoke. I take the opportunity to check on M for a second. She doesn’t look like she’s taken a hit like me, but she’s jumping around, trying and failing to land any more hits.

I turn my attention back to my own enemy just in time to get nailed in the face by a large ball of fire.

I get flung back a few feet, clutching my face in agony, trying to keep an eye on my enemy through my hands. Damn it! I should have been paying attention! 

Struggling to stand up, I try to get moving again, but the pain is making me slow down. If I don’t finish this soon…

Suddenly, the Red Opera glows, before becoming wreathed in a shroud of fire, and charges at me. Startled, I let out a yelp and lash out with my leg in panic. It thankfully connects, and sends the Heartless slamming painfully into the ground. Unfortunately, I also ended up burning my leg with that attack.

I leap towards it, desperately trying to keep this fight from dragging on any longer, and stab my hand through where its head can be seen, dispersing it. As it turns to smoke, a Heart started to float upwards. I grab it before I moves out of reach, and turn towards M to see her pin her enemy to the ground and eviscerate it. As it disappears, she grabs onto the Heart that was released with both hands before it can float off and turns towards me.

Now that the fight is over, some of the pain starts to return. I hiss and clutch one side of me face with my free hand. It would probably hurt a lot more, but I can feel the Light from the Heart in my other hand soothing the pain a little. M uses her free hand and touches to other side of my face, before pulling it away. It’s covered in that same slowly evaporating goo (blood?) the other Heartless had.

Ah, my face must look pretty bad.

“Don't worry about it, I’ll be okay. I think.” I say, trying to reassure her and not really doing that good of a job. M doesn’t look nearly as bad as I do, with only a few light scratches. I guess she had a much easier time than I did.

That fight was really tough, and we were fighting one on one. I knew we got lucky when we surprised those Dusks from earlier, but… are we really this weak? Not only was that fight incredibly sloppy on our parts, but I almost got killed by a Heartless that can barely take more hits than I can!

If we can barely stand up to the most basic of Heartless, what chance do we have against our Nobodies?

I feel my resolve harden, determined to get stronger in order to survive and get back home. But first…

I look at the Heart still in my hand. It’s made no attempt to try to float away since I grabbed onto it. I know that Heartless take these things, but where do they put them? Do they eat them? Put them in their inventory, a la hammerspace style? I stare at the little thing as though it were a puzzle piece. How do I absorb this thing?

I turn towards M to ask her if she knows what to do with it. “Hey M, do you know what to… do wi- OH HOLY SHIT!”

I look on in horror as suddenly her face just sprouts a huge, gaping maw with sharp teeth. She shoves the Heart into it messily, sending what looks like drool all over the place, and swallows it whole. As she does, a content expression shows in her eyes as her cuts heal in a few seconds, like magic.

What. The. Fuck.

How in the… what… when did… WE CAN FUCKING DO THAT?

I… there are no words. What do you say when you literally watch your friend devour something like a starving monster?

I’m… going to have to do that.

I stare at the Heart in my hand, as it glows innocently in my hands, unaware of its fate.

Well… here goes…

I try to mimic the movement of opening my mouth, and after a few seconds, I feel my face open up, a mouth forming. I open wide, and drop the Heart directly in my mouth and swallow it whole.

Oh christ…

That felt… good…

Warmth immediately blooms in my stomach, almost like an internal massage, before it spreads throughout my body, and I can feel the wounds all over my body start to close up.

So this is what it’s like to consume a Heart… it’s nice…

I fall down flat on my ass, basking in the leftover warmth from the Heart. After a few seconds, M plops down next to me. After a few moments of sitting in silence, I realize something.

“Hey, I never did tell you my name did I?”

M shakes her head. I thought as much.

“My name’s Everett.”

“...”

“...Everett.”

* * *

After sitting around for a few minutes, we stand up and start heading back towards the town. It’s getting late, and I want to find a place to rest that isn’t filled with potential enemies. There should be a building that we can use to sleep till morning. That is, if Heartless even need sleep. As we make our way back through the lingering crowd of Heartless, we move carefully, nervous that they all might see us as enemies now that we’ve killed two of them. Thankfully, none of them do anything, but once we make it to the other side we speed up anyway, moving away from them as fast as we can.

Since we know where we’re going, it doesn’t take very long to make it back into Hollow Bastion. The sun has pretty much set completely, but I can still see just fine (how convenient, Heartless have darkvision). We stick to the outskirts of the city, where many of the buildings haven’t been repaired yet in order to avoid people. Eventually, we stumble upon a building that’s only partially destroyed. We enter it, and look for somewhere comfortable to lie down.

Thankfully, it looks like there’s still some furniture from when people used to live here. We settle down on an old couch in the corner of what was probably a living room. Thanks to our small stature, there’s enough space for us to both comfortably settle down on it. I lay down on it, and soon enough, I end up drifting off to sleep.

 

I woke up to the sun shining directly on my face through a hole in the wall. Groaning, I sit up groggily, and find that M is already up, sitting on her side of the couch, gently swinging her legs back and forth. 

...Did she even sleep last night? She doesn’t look like she even moved at all....

She doesn’t seem tired, so maybe Heartless don’t actually need sleep?

Doesn’t matter to me, I’m going to follow my old sleep schedule anyway. It was one of the few structured things in my life and you’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands damn it!

M notices that I’ve woken up, and stands up off the couch.

“Alive?” she questions.

Alive? Did she think I had died or something?

“M, I didn’t die. I just went to sleep.” She looks confused at my reply.

“...Sleep?”

Oh good lord, she doesn’t know what sleeping is. Ok, how do I explain this…

“Sleep is like, well, you lay down on something comfy. And then you close your eyes and eventually you just… fall asleep. It’s supposed to allow your body to rest.”

She still seemed confused, but less so. So I guess I did a good enough job explaining the mechanics of sleeping.

“Anyways, we should get moving. We’ve got Heartless to defeat and Hearts to claim!”

At the mention of Hearts, M perks up, her antennae wiggling.

“Hearts!” M shouts, bouncing up and down like a small child.

I chuckle. “Yes, Hearts”

* * *

As we start moving through the outskirts of town again, I think about the last fight we had. 

It was pure luck that we even won that fight. We were both super sloppy, especially me. It probably would have gone a lot better if I just hadn’t looked away for that one second. All I did was look away for a second and the fight got so out of control that I almost died. And if that had happened, I doubt there would be any chance of me recovering at all. The odds that my Nobody would be destroyed are slim, and if he never showed up in any of the games, it’s likely that Sora never encounters him, meaning that if I die, I’ll never get back home.

...To be fair, I’ve never fought anything in my life before. Back before I became a Heartless, just the mere thought of having to fight someone even verbally was enough to send me running for the hills. That’s going to have to change. I’m going to have to learn how to fight, and soon. 

Which means I’m going to have to pick more fights.

It would also be great if I could figure out how to phase into the ground like other Shadows. The ability to easy dodge attacks and increase my speed would be incredibly useful.

I don’t get to contemplate fighting strategy much longer, as I feel the Light of several people getting closer. Damn, we must have moved in closer to town than I thought.

Quickly coming to a halt, I motion to M, and we both scramble up the wall of the alleyway we were walking down. We make it up to the roof just in time, as we hear the voices of a couple of people wandering down the alleyway a few seconds later.

“Isn’t it weird?” I hear one of them, a girl it seems, say.

“Yeah, it is. That Heartless like, saved my sister’s life.” I hear another voice, this time one a young man, say.

“But why? Heartless steal Hearts right? Why would they bother saving one? And how did they even get past the security system?” I hear a third voice, also male, ask.

Oh boy, they’re talking about us aren’t they?

“I don’t know, but I heard Cid was looking into upgrading the security system to keep them out.” The other man spoke up.

That doesn’t sound good. I try to listen to more of their conversation, but they’ve moved out of hearing range, and I don’t want to risk getting spotted by them trying to keep eavesdropping.

...We’ve become urban legends. I was hoping to avoid that. Now the security is going to be beefed up, making staying on the ground even more dangerous. And there’s the possibility that Sora will catch wind of us. If he does, he might try to track us down and destroy us.

We’re going to have to be more careful and make sure no one gets a chance to see us at all. Damn it.


	5. We Really Need to Stop Making a Habit Out of Almost Dying

It was a good little while before we found any more Heartless.

When we ran into them, it was a group of three armored Heartless that looked like knights, each of them holding sharp looking swords with golden cross guards (Armored Knights, if I remember correctly).

They weren’t moving from where they’re standing, and seem to be inspecting the ground in front of them. Two of them back up, and then dash forward, only to be quickly dealt with by the mines that appeared.

Ah, this must be the edge of the defense system.

There’s only one of them left now, and I’m sure we can take them out if we engage correctly.

“Okay,” I whisper. “I’m going to go around and get on his right. M, I want you to go around on his left. On my mark, we jump on him and attack. Got it?”

M nods her head.

I moved, crossing the tops of the buildings and quickly come to a stop on the Heartless’ right. I look over on the other side of the street to see M get into position. After waiting a few seconds, I raise my hand, and quickly bring it down.

I jump down at the Heartless, with M following suit only moments after I do. I swipe with my claws, leaving deep scratches where part of its arm was exposed, while M’s attack bounces off the side of its armor.

I landed on its left, and immediately ducked, dodging under a swipe from its sword and made a move like I was going to try to attack again. While it was distracted, M kicked it in the back of its leg, knocking it off balance. I went in for a real attack this time, but couldn’t move fast enough, and it blocked with the flat of its sword.

The Heartless did a quick spinning attack, trying to get both of us in one go. M barely got out of the way, and got a cut on her face. I dived to the side, managing to avoid the attack, but had to jump back in close when several mines spawned round me, trying to box me in.

Shit! We’re way too close to the edge of the security system. We need to move away from it.

As I land, I jump forward again, this time with more force, and tackle the Armored Knight from behind. Unprepared for the attack, I sent him stumbling forward a few feet, and a swipe at his knee from M sends him crashing to the ground.

Getting up quickly, I kick the Heartless as hard as I can in the head, and a loud clanging sound can be heard as his helmet rattles his brains, stunning the Heartless further. I then wrench the sword from his hand, and with both hands, bring it down on his middle. It tears through the armor with ease, and cuts almost all the way through him. Black blood sprays everywhere, and the Heartless vanishes in a puff of smoke.

I quickly grabbed the Heart that was released and quickly realize we have a problem.

There’s one Heart, and two of us.

Which one of us gets it?

After a moment's thought, I hold the Heart out to M, allowing her to have it.

To my surprise, she shakes her head.

“Your kill.” she says.

So because I dealt the killing blow, I get to keep it? I guess that makes sense.

I shrug my shoulders. It isn’t like there won’t be more Hearts later. I open wide, and plop the Heart in my maw, swallowing it whole like I did the previous one.

Ooooh, that tasted amazing…

This Heart was slightly bigger than the previous one, likely due to the fact that Armored Knights are generally stronger than Red Operas, and somehow that only made it taste better.

Once again, warmth from the Heart’s Light fills my stomach, before spreading out through the rest of my body. It joined the leftover Light from the last Heart, leaving me warm and tingly all over.

After taking a few moments to come down from the high, I nod to M, and we both jump back up to the rooftops and start moving again.

* * *

It’s about three minutes into our traveling that I noticed it.

Slowly but surely, M was falling behind, struggling to keep up with me.

Have I gotten faster?

I guess I didn't notice if it had happened before because we both had one Heart. But now that I have one more than she does, the boost to my strength is starting to become apparent. 

I guess we really do get stronger when we acquire more Hearts. That means we’re on the right track at least. All we have to do i keep getting more, and eventually we’ll be strong enough to find our Nobodies without having to worry about dying.

I slow down some, letting M catch up, and make sure that I don't move too fast for her to fall behind again.

We need to find more Heartless, especially for M. If I keep getting all the Hearts, then M is going to keep falling behind. And if that happens, I’ll start beating them much faster than she can, causing her to fall behind even faster.

The next one we find I’ll have to hold back some and let M get the final blow and claim the Heart herself.

* * *

After traversing the rooftops some more, we come across an area that seems to be under reconstruction. There are a couple of machines around, but currently no one’s using them. Off in the distance, a tiny castle could be seen. If I remember correctly, that was Maleficent’s old castle from the first game.

Down below, a couple of Heartless pop in from… somewhere (probably the Realm of Darkness). It’s just a couple Shadows, and M and I get ready to jump down and fight them.

Just seconds before we do however, several shards of ice come flying in from our left, tearing the Heartless to shreds.

Fuck… Sora’s here.

Sure enough, I can see him and his friends running into the street as more Heartless pop in to try to attack them. This time it’s a mix of Soldiers and Yellow Operas. Both Sora and Donald immediately snap off a fireball from their weapons, nailing two of the Operas and dispersing them. Sora and Goofy continue forward into the fray, while Donald hangs back and plays support. It doesn’t take very long for them to defeat the ten or so Heartless remaining.

Unfortunately, I get so caught up in watching them fight that I forget I’m also considered an enemy.

It’s Donald who notices us up on the roof. But once he shouts, grabbing everyone’s attention, M and I are already moving as fast as we can. Leaping across the buildings, I chance a quick glance back to find that Sora is in pursuit of us.

Cursing, I turn back, putting on even more speed in an effort to get away from them, and look behind to see if I’m losing them.

I realize then that even though I’m fast enough to keep away, M isn’t

I curse again, remembering that M isn’t as fast as I am, and even though I’m getting away from them, M is falling behind. Goofy tosses his shield in an effort to hit M, and she just narrowly avoids being decapitated.

I skid to a halt, and turn to face her, arms outstretched. When she gets close enough, I grab onto her, and turn to start running again, carrying her on my shoulder. Unfortunately, by waiting for her, I’m now close enough that I can be attacked as well. When I jump forward, Sora’s Keyblade misses me by such a small amount that I felt the hum of its aggressive Light.

M is… surprisingly light. I guess Heartless don’t really weigh that much. She doesn’t slow me down much, and I’m still travelling pretty fast. However, now I have to try to dodge the attacks coming from behind. Some of them have gotten pretty close, and I doubt I have the health to hold up to even one of their attacks.

Out of desperation and plenty of fear, I try something risky, and jump down to the streets below.

Almost instantly, several mines activate, and start making their way towards us. I start dodging out of the way of them, some getting close enough to actually detonate, but I’m fast enough that I move out of range before they do.

I duck down a narrow alleyway, and the mines follow us. Quickly, and with all my strength, I swing M around by the arm when we get about halfway down, and throw her up into the air, onto the top of the roof. I follow up the side of the wall just moments after. Just a few seconds after, I can hear Sora and his friends round the corner.

“Where’d they go?” I hear Sora ask.

“Beats me,” Goofy replies. I peak over the edge and see them turn around and start walking away.

“I can’t believe we let them get away…”

“Aw, cheer up Sora, you can’t win them all!” I hear Donald try to cheer Sora up as they turn the corner and walk out of sight. It’s only after another few seconds that I bother to relax.

I slump down and heave a sigh of relief. That was a close one.

We’ve been having too many of those. So far we’ve almost died on three separate occasions in the span of two days, and that’s not good. We can’t keep relying on luck to get by. We need to get stronger!

But, in order to get stronger, we have to pick our fights carefully and avoid biting off more than we can chew. Shadows are the weakest of Heartless, and so far we’ve only made it by through surprise attacks and proper set up before engaging. There are way too many fights we’ve had to skip just to avoid meeting an untimely end.

Once we actually get some more firepower, things should become easier for us, but until then it’s an uphill battle.

Damn it…

I look over towards M to see if she’s alright, and unsurprisingly she isn’t. She’s huddled up in a ball in the opposite corner of the roof, trembling like a leaf in a thunderstorm. Her antennae are rigid, similar to one’s hair standing on the back of their neck. I don’t blame her for being terrified, not when we came so close to getting killed. Hell, I can practically feel a panic attack threatening to start up myself. Slowly, I crawl over to her, and gently place my hand on her shoulder.

“There there, I know it was scary, but Sora and his Keyblade are gone now. He isn’t around to hurt you anymore,” I say, trying to calm her. It seems to be working, because M is starting to shake less. After rubbing her shoulder for a few more moments and reassuring her that we’re safe, she slowly looks towards me. She uncurls herself slightly and wraps her arms around me.

“...Safe?” she asks.

“We’re safe,” I answer.

We sit there for a while, comforting each other.

* * *

After a few more minutes, we untangle ourselves, and start moving again, this time with a bit more care.

We head back towards to outskirts of town again, since that’s where we’ve found the most Heartless, and start looking for some fights that we could win. We quickly find one in the form of a large Opera shaped Heartless.

It’s much larger than the two Operas we fought before, and is red with flame like decals decorating the bottom of its “clothing.” This one definitely looks like an Opera, but it certainly isn’t a red one. What’s this one called? It’s uh, um… a Crimson… something.

We slowly circle around the Crimson Opera(?), trying to stay behind it. After a few seconds, a signal M to attack, and we both leap at it with our claws, tearing open the sides of its “clothing."

The Heartless squeals, leaking black smoke everywhere, and summons red, glassy looking balls around its body. It lobs one at us, and we dodge out of the way. When it lands where we were standing, it explodes violently.

Ah, so this one makes bombs.

Now aware of its abilities, I warily eye the Heartless before me. It lobs two more my way, and I jump backwards, avoiding the explosives.

I make an effort to keep its attention on me with feints and probing strikes, quickly dodging back as it keeps throwing bombs at me. Trying to stay behind the Heartless M was looking for a gap in its defenses.

Finally, she gets an opening when it flings the last bomb at me. It gets pretty close, and the blast knocks me back quite a ways, but the Crimson Opera doesn't get the chance to do anything else. 

Because it was focusing so much on me, it doesn't notice M launch herself at it. She drives her hand right through the back of its skull, destroying the Heartless. She quickly snatches up the Heart and scarfs it down, absorbing its Light before it can get away.

That fight went a lot easier that all of our other ones. We didn't take much damage and took out our target quickly. I think we’re getting the hang of this!

There’s still plenty of daylight left, so we start moving again, looking other small groups of Heartless. Thankfully they haven't noticed us killing them, or else we’d have be in deep trouble.

It doesn't take very long for us to find another Heartless. This one was also on its own, seemingly staring off into space. It was a good deal taller than us, which isn’t hard, considering we probably barely break the two foot mark, and had a torso shaped like a big, heavy hammer.

The Heartless, which I can only assume is called an Iron Hammer or something simple like that, hadn’t even noticed us walk towards it. It looked pretty tough, but since it’s staring off into space, hopefully it won’t notice out attack until it’s too late. After getting close enough to it, M and I tense, and then launch ourselves at it, hoping to get a quick, easy kill.

Just before our attacks connected, it backflipped out of the way.

Taken by surprise, I don’t react quick enough to dodge the leg that came at me. It hit me square in the chest with enough force to break ribs. Thankfully I don’t have any, but I’m still flung away, and slam painfully into a rock behind me.

With the wind knocked out of me, I struggle to get up, and see M frantically dodging the Iron Hammers attacks. It’s flipping and jumping all over the place, alternating between lashing out with its limbs and using the hammer on its chest to try and squish M to a pulp. Thankfully the strikes all miss, but only barely.

I catch my breath, and wince as I stand up fully. I’m probably going to feel that one later, but right now i’m concerned about the Heartless who’s slowly getting a bit more accurate with every swing.

I rush forward and pick up a small rock, the Light from the Hearts inside of me numbing the pain some. Skidding to a halt, I use me momentum to fling it as hard as I can at the Iron Hammer. I hit it on its hammer frame, and although it doesn’t do much, it does take its attention off of M.

Which unfortunately means it’s now focused on me.

It charges at me and with a yelp, I quickly spin out of the way, dodging the Heartless as it brings the hammer down on the ground hard, creating a small shockwave where it hit. That empty feeling blooms in my chest again at the sight, knowing that If that strike had connected I would have been ground into paste.

M thankfully comes to my rescue, kicking it in the back of its head. I follow through, clawing at the Heartless’ knees, knocking it to the ground. Both of us get ready to attack it while it’s down, when it suddenly it grabs me by my leg and pulls, sending me crashing to the ground.

It stands up, still holding me by my leg, leaving me dangling upside down. Behind the Heartless, M tries to attack again, only for the Heartless to swing me around, slamming my head into M’s, sending her flying.

Head pounding, I can barely see anything past the stars of my possible serious concussion. Blood is rushing to my head, worsening my headache, and I’m pretty sure I’m bleeding from my forehead. Suddenly, I’m flying through the air, and crash into the ground hard, the pain blinding me

Vision blurring, I can just barely make out the shape of the Iron Hammer getting ready to deal the finishing blow. Time seems to slow, and I can feel my life threaten to flash before my eyes.

I can’t let it end this way… I just need to move.

But everything hurts so much... 

The Heartless winds up its strike.

Come on… I just… need to... fucking move!

The Heartless swings down.

I close my eyes, waiting for the pain… 

when nothing happens.

I open my eyes, and I can see the head of the hammer directly in front of me, and tinted purple.

...Actually, everything is purple. Why is…

After a few seconds, I realize what I did. I sank into the ground out of pure instinct, dodging the attack.

My body hurts a lot less while intangible, and I shift slightly, getting from under the hammer before exploding out of the ground, taking the startled Heartless’ head clear off with my claws. It disperses, and two Hearts float out.

I manage to grab onto both of them before the pain returns in full force.

I scream, and fall to the ground barely able to control my limbs enough to hold onto the Hearts, let alone stop my descent. Fuzziness immediately clouds my vision once more, and I can only barely make out the shape of M enter my vision. I try to speak, but all I manage is a rasping cough.

M takes the Hearts from my hands, and presses them against my face.

“...Eat. Get better.”

Slowly, I open my mouth, and wince in pain. I feel M drop both Hearts into my mouth, and I painfully swallow both of them down. I can practically feel them move down my throat in a painful lump.

They drop heavily into my stomach, leaving me feeling full. Soon enough, I can feel their soothing warmth spread throughout my body. my headache fades away, and my vision clears.

The rest of my wounds heal up, but the warmth doesn’t fade. In fact, it starts getting hotter and hotter, until it feels like I’m burning up. My vision starts swimming again.

“M… what’s happening to me?” I rasp out painfully.

It’s clear that M doesn’t know what’s happening either, and she starts to panic, wildly looking around for something that could help me.

The last thing I see before blacking out is a cascade of dark colors.


	6. It’s Time to Evolve, or Something Like That

Slowly, I wake up.

I feel sore all over, as If I just finished an intense workout. I open my eyes and am greeted by the moon hanging directly overhead.

How long was I out for?

I sit up, and almost immediately regret doing so. A dull pain shoots down my spine, and I let out a low groan. I then hear to sound of tiny feet rushing toward me and a tiny Shadow Heartless enters my view.

I gasp, and try to back away from it, when it suddenly launches itself at me, grabbing me in a tight hug, almost knocking me down from my sitting position.

“Everett! Alive!” it shouts.

Wait a second…

“...M? Is that you?” I ask.

She nods her head rapidly.

“But how? You’re so… small.” 

She was. Earlier, she was my size. Now though, I have a full head and a half worth of height on her, and she’s standing up! Even now, her arms struggle to reach all the way round my torso.

“You got bigger!” She says.

...huh? I grew?

Now that I think about it, my limbs are the parts of my body that ache the most. It feels like they’ve been painfully stretched out…

I turn back to M.

“How did this happen?”

She thinks for a little bit, likely trying to figure out what to say. After a few moments, she starts to speak, pointing at me.

“Big egg appear. Make you bigger.”

…

...what.

Big egg? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Like, did I make a cocoon or something? Do Heartless evolve like Pokemon? Is that what I did?

Ugh, I still feel a little groggy, I’m in no shape to do any critical thinking right now.

At least the pain is starting to fade some. I slowly try to stand up, wincing a little, but it’s a far cry from the searing pain I was expecting. When I stand up fully, I realize just how much I grew. I feel like I’m really far away from the ground, and M looks even smaller now that I’m fully upright. I must have at least doubled in height!

I take a step, and stumble, not used to my longer legs. I fall down onto my hands and knees, causing M to rush over to my side.

This is ridiculous! I didn't have any problems before, and that was when I went from being six feet tall to two! But suddenly I grow back up to four feet and I can't walk! 

Ugh, this is so unfair…

I stand up again on unsteady feet, crouching slightly for better balance. M holds on to my leg, trying to help keep me steady, but it’s unlikely she’d be able to keep me from falling again. Still, I appreciate the gesture.

I take a careful step forward, arms out ready to catch myself if I fall again. I wobble a little, and M tightens her grip when it looks like I’m about to fall. Thankfully, I regain my balance just in time.

“Come on, we should find somewhere comfortable to lie down.”

* * *

It takes a good thirty minutes, but we eventually make it back to the house we, or at least, I slept in the night before. Part way back, I got used to my new size, and could confidently walk without having to hunch over slightly. 

Entering the slightly damaged house, M and I sit down on the couch, and just stay still for a few minutes.

...I’m a little scared to go to sleep, what if I have nightmares? I can’t help but think back to the fight earlier today, when I almost died. Once again, M and I almost got killed and only came out on top due to pure luck. If I hadn’t sank into the ground when I did… 

A small tremor runs through me.

Damn it! I hate feeling so helpless. I’ll never get any better at this rate, I’m just going to get killed, and then I’ll never be able to get back home! I’ll never get to see my friends again, I’ll never get to have fun, I’ll never get to graduate, I’ll never get to create the things that make me happy, I’ll never…

I’ll never get my life back.

What’s the point of all this? Nothing’s ever going to change. I’ll never be able to get home and make something of myself. I was going to be animator! I was going to make games! But now I’m stuck here, missing my body, my Heart, everything! Why did I think I could do anything to save us? My friends are probably all doing a much better job getting their bodies back.

Or maybe they all died, and I’m just working towards a lost cause.

You know… maybe…

Maybe it would have been better if I had died. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about my friends and my home.

…

...I wanna go home.

But it’s gone. Everything is gone.

I sniff loudly, and I feel my eyes start watering.

I desperately try to hold back the tears, but I can’t. 

How ironic is it, that Heartless can cry?

That’s the last coherent thought I have before everything shuts down and I start bawling at the top of my lungs. I don’t really remember too much of what happened after that. All I can recall is the sensation of someone wrapping their arms around me, holding me tight while I cry myself to sleep.

* * *

When I wake up the next morning, the Sun is almost directly overhead. I open my eyes, and let out a low groan. They feel dry and sticky, and I’m pretty sure there are tear tracks running down my face. I’m lying face down on the couch, and my spine feels a little sore. When I shift a little to try to get more comfortable, I realize that someone is lying down on top of me. Awkwardly craning my head backwards, I find M sprawled on top of me fast asleep.

Great… how am I supposed to get up without waking her?

Slowly, I angle my body, tilting it so that M slides off of me as I slip out from under her, leaving her on the couch. I don’t think I was very gentle about it though, because a few seconds later she stirred and sat up, blinking slowly.

When she turns and looks at me, I give a small wave.

“...Hi.”

Suddenly I have a handful of Heartless wrapping her limbs around me.

“You’re okay!” M shouts into my chest.

“Yeah, I’m okay now,” I say, gently pulling M off of me. “Thank you for last night by the way. I needed that.”

I sit her down on the floor, and we both take a few minutes to properly wake up.

“Right, we should probably go looking for more Heartless. You need to get more Hearts in you, and I want to figure out just how much stronger I am.”

M seems kind of nervous.

“Hey, we’ll just take things slow okay? We’ll look for Heartless we know that we can beat, and we’ll focus on them one at a time. We both need to train.”

After a few more moments, M slowly nods.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

* * *

As we move across the rooftops looking for prey, I can already tell that I’ve gotten much stronger. I’m moving so fast that M keeps falling behind, and I have to stop repeatedly to let her catch up as I try to control my newfound agility. Eventually she gets tired of falling behind, and the next time I stop to let her catch up she scrambles up my limbs and places herself firmly on my back.

We move much faster after she climbs on my back, quickly entering the city where it will be easier to find lone Heartless that won’t kick our asses. After a few minutes, we find a lone Soldier that slipped through the cracks in the security system, slowly making its way towards the shopping district.

Coming to a stop a few buildings ahead, I let M get down off my back before turning to watch the Heartless as it gets closer to us.

When it crosses directly underneath us, I jump down and land on top of it, swiping down with my claws, eviscerating it and just two strikes.

Hot damn.

Quickly, I snatch the Heart that was released out of the air shove it in my mouth, swallowing it down.

Ah… that never gets old.

I hop back up to where I left M, and find her looking at me in amazement.

“Strong!” She shouts. I Look away, feeling a little embarrassed at being complimented.

“Ah… thanks…” I say. God, why does being complimented for literally anything leave me feeling all embarrassed?

Trying not to let my need for any sort of validation become too obvious, I turn around and tell M to climb on. After making sure she isn’t going to fall off, I take off again to look for more Heartless.

We actually get lucky, and it doesn’t take us long to find another. It’s an Armored Knight, and it looks like it's already busy fighting off a Dusk. It’s losing though, its armor is dented and cracked, and it’s missing its sword too. I let M down off of my back and turn to her.

“Okay M, on three, I’ll take the Nobody, and you get the Heartless.” M nods.

“Alright. One… two… three!” 

We both jump down and launch ourselves at our targets. I reach mine first, tackling the Nobody and stab it in the chest before it has a chance to do anything. The Heartless, thinking I had come to save it, let its guard down just in time for M to claw directly at a large crack on its back, punching through its body and ripping the its Heart right out of its chest. It lets out a yelp of surprise before dissolving into smoke.

M quickly eats the Heart, absorbing its Light. I give her a thumbs up (which is hard to do with three fingers), and walk back over to her. That walk quickly turns into a run when she suddenly winces and collapses in a dead faint.

Before I make it all the way over to her, she glows a deep red, and a ball of cascading blacks, red, and purples erupts around her.

Is… is this what she meant by big egg? I guess it kind of looks like one… But how long is she going to be in there?

I decide to stand watch from up on a nearby rooftop where I can’t be seen. If anyone comes by I’ll just scare them off by acting as though I want their Heart.

It’s only after a few minutes of waiting that I realize that there really isn’t anything I can do if Sora and his friends stumble upon M like this. I definitely won't be able to fight them off, and somehow I get the feeling that I won’t be able to move M while she’s in that egg.

I hope this doesn’t take too long…

 

Thankfully, no one comes comes by the entire time she’s in there. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, the round shape of the egg wavers a little, before collapsing into a bunch of thick strands of Darkness that quickly vanish. When it all clears, I can see M still lying down on the ground.

Jumping down from the building I was keeping watch from, I rush over to M’s still unconscious form. When I get close enough, I realize that she looks a little different. M is a lot larger than she was before, and her head is a lot more well proportioned in relation to the rest of her body. The antennae on her head are a little bit longer as well. If I had to guess, I’d say she’s a bit under four feet now.

I grab her by the shoulder and shake her a little bit to try to wake her up. She groans lightly, but doesn’t stir.

Wonderful.

I don’t really think we should stick around here for much longer. No one’s come by in the last few minutes, but we’re still pretty close in, and someone could come wandering down here and spot us at any moment. Thinking quickly, I scoop up M in my arms, carrying her bridal style, and start moving back towards the outskirts of town.

It’s a little bit slow since I’m carrying a dead weight in my arms, but eventually we get far enough away from where people are living that I feel comfortable laying her back down. Throughout the entire journey, she doesn’t stir once. I’m a little worried, but since I went through the same thing yesterday I figure that M should be okay.

Still, now that we’re far enough away from everyone that I don’t have to keep watch, I don’t really have much to do. What I wouldn’t do to have my phone with me right now…

I really miss my stuff.

Sighing to myself, I get ready to sit down for what will likely be a long time when I remember that there still is something for me to do. I still need to get the hang of sinking into the ground to dodge attacks.

I had done it on pure instinct yesterday, and while it certainly saved my life, I can't rely on it happening again. I need to figure out to do it at will. If I can do that, then it will be much easier to fight off enemies, or even escape if I need to. And I’ve already done it before, so I should be able to do again, easy!

Standing back up, I take a few steps away from where I left M lying.

Time to see if I can do this…

I concentrate, trying to will myself to sink into the ground, only for nothing to happen. I try several times over the course of a few minutes, and fail to get anything to really happen outside of making a fool of myself.

Damn it.

How did I do this last time? I can't really remember since I was too busy trying not die when I did it. What was it? Instinct? Desperation?

Hm… maybe if I try…

I concentrate one more time, thinking back to when I did this the first time. The pain, the fear, the looming hammer and the desperation to dodge. The empty feeling in my chest grows, threatening to swallow me up, when something snaps into of place, and I feel numb up to my ankles.

Looking down, I see the faint purple outline of my feet underneath the stone walkway.

I… I did it!

Unfortunately, in my elation, my concentration wavers, and my feet were forced out of the ground, sending me stumbling and falling on my face.

But I can hardly care, I actually did it!

Now I just need to keep practicing until I can get my whole body underground.

* * *

I keep practicing, taking small breaks every now and then to avoid exhausting myself. I make some pretty decent progress, to the point where I’m able to sink all the way up to my knees if I concentrate.

Rising back up out of the ground, I get ready to make another attempt when I hear a groan come from behind me.

I turn around at the sound, and see M slowly sitting up, rubbing her head.

I move closer to her, ready to help her up if she’s able to stand.

“You’re awake,” I say to her. “How you feeling?”

M groans again. “Like I just ran a marathon, what happened?”

...huh?

Was that a full sentence? She’s never said anything so… coherent before.

I realize that I haven’t said anything for several seconds, and stammer slightly before giving an answer.

“Oh. Well uh, after you passed out, this big… egg looking thing surrounded you, same as what happened to me. When you came out of it you were, well… the way you are now. I brought you here so we wouldn't be so exposed. Are you alright? Feel dizzy or anything?”

M rubs her head again before answering. “I think so? My head feels… clearer.”

“Clearer? Does that mean you remember anything?”

She thinks a little, before shaking her head. “Not really…”

Shit.

Well, the fact that she can articulate better means we’re on the right track. I’m sure if we get more Hearts she’ll start to remember some things.

I refocus on M and speak up again.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure your memories will come back eventually.”

“I sure hope so…”

“Trust me, they will.”

She still seems a little doubtful.

Oh well, I’m sure she’ll realize it eventuality. 

“Anyways, we should probably get moving, and you need to get used to your new limbs. Can you stand?” I ask.

“I think so.” M tries to stand up and almost immediately falls over. Or least, she would have if I hadn't managed to catch her.

“Maybe you shouldn't try to do it so fast,” I say.

M mutters something and tries to stand again. This time, she manages to stay upright. She takes an unsteady step with her arms held out balance. She stumbles a little, but manages to catch herself in time.

After about ten minutes of her taking slow steps and me having to catch her numerous times, M is confident enough to stand fully upright. Even though she’s grown, I still manage to be about half a head taller than her.

“Why am I small...” I hear her complain.

“well, sometimes that’s just how things are I guess.”

“I guess so… it still isn't fair…” M mumbles.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll get taller with more Hearts. Speaking of which, we should probably go get more.” I say. “We’ll stick to the inside of the city again, since the ones inside are easier to handle." M nods in agreement and we both start making our way inside town.

As we make our way across the rooftops, I stop for a moment, remembering something.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to show you! Look at what I can do!” As I say that, I concentrate for a second, and sink into the ground past my knees. M looks impressed.

“Nice,” She says. “You’ll have to teach that to me.”

“Uh, maybe once I figure out how to explain it…”

“Take your time.”

And with that we take off again; this time, M is able to keep up with me.


	7. Houston, we Literally Just Saw a Dragon

After a about ten minutes of roof hopping, I recognize the area we enter. We’re near Merlin’s home, and means that Sora is nearby. I slow to a stop, and M slows down just a little bit in front of me. She looks at me, and I can tell there’s a question on her lips.

“We should be careful, Sora’s likely going to be hanging around here.”

M shudders. “That kid with the Keyblade?”

I nod.

Right as I do so, we hear the door to Merlin’s home swing open, and Sora comes running out, heading towards the bailey surrounding the town. Just a few seconds behind him are Donald and Goofy. M and I keep crouched down on the roof we’re on until they’re well out of sight.

I don’t remember what happens here. Is the Battle of a Thousand Heartless soon? I don’t think it is, Maleficent hasn’t really been in the area, at least I don’t think she has. Does the Organization show up? Is there some sort of Boss Heartless battle? If only I could remember more about the story…

...Oh boy. What if they’re getting ready to leave Hollow Bastion? We still don’t know how to open the Corridors to travel to other worlds! If we get stuck here, we’ll never find our Nobodies!

“M, we need to follow them.”

M starts. “What? Why? What if they spot us?”

“I think they’re getting ready to leave this world, and unless you know how to open the Corridors of Darkness, they’re our only way to get from world to world,” I explain. “If they leave without us, we’ll be stuck here till they get back, and if we want to find our Nobodies then we need to keep moving.”

M still doesn’t seem convinced.

“...Look, we’ll be really careful, like we’ve always been. When we get the chance, we’ll sneak on whatever they’re using and hide till they stop somewhere.”

M still looks a bit worried at the thought of following someone who could very well kill us, but nods her head after a few seconds.

“Okay, let’s hang back as far as we can while keeping them in sight,” I say, before M and I start running after them.

* * *

After ten minutes of moving around, tracking, and staying out of sight, Sora and his friends run up a set of stairs that lead up to the top of the Bailey. They start heading towards a smallish building that sits on top of the wall, likely a guard tower, when several Soldiers and Armored Knights pop in around them. Sora quickly summons his Keyblade and turns, sending off several shards of magical ice at two Heartless behind him, destroying them and creating an opening in the circle around them. Moving through the gap before the other Heartless can close it up, Sora swipes out with Kingdom Key, catching an Armored Knight in the neck with the teeth of the blade, decapitating it and releasing the Heart stored within.

Goofy and Donald aren't sitting idly by either, and soon enough the rest of the Heartless fell quickly to their combined might. All that was left of the Heartless were the Hearts within them slowly floating away. When they started to look around and check for straglers, M and I ducked down further and the roof we were hiding on. And after a quick check, Sora and the others dismissed their weapons and walked inside the building and out of view.

Quickly, M and I moved in towards the building, mindful of the explosives that popped up when we sprinted across the short walkway. Before we can sneak inside however, both the gate on the door and the one further inside suddenly slam shut, and we can hear the sounds of several Nobodies pop in inside the building. M and I aren’t safe either, as we hear a few pop in behind us as well. Turning around, we look at our opponents. 

The Nobodies before us are dressed in what appear to be white kimonos with large metal cylinders on their heads. They also have four sword sheaths that no doubt hold wickedly sharp blades. These Nobodies are Samurai and are considered to be high ranking Nobodies.

And there are four of them.

Next to me, M starts shaking a little.

Fuck.

These things can do a ton of damage if they land any hits, and four of them might be too much to handle if they all decide to attack at once. Unless I can pull off Reaction Commands as well, we’re in for a rough time.

These things prefer to counter their opponent's attacks, so if we stay calm we should have a chance.

I lean over to M and whisper to her. “M, these things prefer counter attacks, and rarely initiate a strike. So stay calm, and follow my lead.”

M nods, but is still shaking quite a bit.

Slowly, I ready myself andy approach one of them. When I’m about ten feet away from the closest one, I get down into a loose fencing stance, claws ready as I send a challenging look their way.

This better work…

The closest Samurai pauses for a moment, and then nods, before getting down into a stance of their own, hand resting on the hilt of one of their many swords.

Time passes.

We are both still. Reading each other silently.

Their muscles tense slightly, and I concentrate.

The Nobody explodes into action, moving at blinding speeds as they whip out their sword in a horizontal slash, trying to take my head off. What they didn't expect however, was for me to suddenly sink up to me knees into the ground, and as they fly by me I lash out with my clawed hands, leaving fatally deep gashes along their side. Thick, white blood spews out of the marks in their side before they burst apart in a splash of white mist.

The next one doesn't wait for me to challenge it and draws two swords before gracefully making its way towards me. Another also moves towards M, who yelps before jumping up on top of the small building to dodge their attack.

The one focusing on me swings low with one of the swords, and I quickly backflip out of the way before lashing out with a kick. The Nobody bends around the attack before trying to remove my leg with another slash. I drop, not quite avoiding the strike and I get a nasty cut on my leg for troubles. Hissing out a curse, I roll to avoid a stab before seeing to remaining Samurai move in as well.

Shit.

I stand up and feint left before lunging forward and to the right, moving behind the Samurai and quickly pulling one the long swords from a sheath on its back. It’s way too long for me to only use one hand, so I’m forced to use both of them. Remembering the Nobody still behind me, I turn and slash, reflecting a strike that would cut me half, before striking out with a lunge that forces them back. Unfortunately I turn on my bad leg, and nearly fall over from the pain that lances up it. 

Damn it, if I don't end this soon…

I leap to the side, getting out of the pincer formation I was stuck in when I hear a pop, signifying the end of the Samurai harassing M. Taking a quick glance in her direction, I see her leap down from the guard tower she had climbed with a long but shallow cut running diagonally along her torso.

Yikes, that looks like it was a close one.

Turning back to my two enemies, I find one of them has started to charge at me, sword ready for an overhead strike. I awkwardly hop to the side, minding my leg, and the attack misses, sword clanging off the cobblestone flooring. While it was off balance, I swing with my sword, chopping both of the Samurai’s legs off.

Turning to face the other one, I thrust forward, and the Nobody counters with a swing, hitting my sword and easily knocking me off course. Improvising, I use the momentum from the strike and perform a full spin, bringing my blade around to try the get them in the side. Not expecting me to do that, the Samurai hastily brings their sword back around to try and block again, but their grip isn’t solid, and the hit sends both our swords spinning out of our hands over the edge of the bailey.

Before they can pull out one of their remaining blades, I leap at their torso and tackle them. The Nobody doesn't fall, but in that split second they stumbled I drive my claw through the eye holes of their helmet, spearing them in the face and killing them.

Suddenly I hear a shout.

“Watch out!”

Without thinking, I try to jump using my injured leg, and end up crashing to the ground. As I fall, a sword goes flying over where my head was and I turn my head to see the legless Samurai with their arm out, having thrown one of their swords at me. They don't get to do anything else though, as M comes down on them, tearing into their back with her claws, eviscerating the Nobody and dispersing it.

Now that the fight is over, the adrenaline fades and the slash I took to the leg decides to make sure I don’t forget about it. I groan and adjust myself, sitting down on the ground, clutching my injured leg. M rushes over to me when she sees me sit down.

“Are you okay?” she asks me.

“Yeah, I think so.” I grunt out.

“We should probably look at that,” M says, slowly taking my hands in hers and gently moving them aside.

I look down at the wound and bite back a whimper, the pain intensifying as I glance at it. 

It is a very deep cut and I get the feeling that, if I were still human, I would be able to see the bones in my leg. The cut should have been thinner, but had likely opened up more from all the jumping around I did. Copious amounts of black and purple goo leaks out of the wound, thick like it was made of syrup. There are also thin wisps of black smoke curling up and out of the cut. All in all, it looks very bad. I don’t know if Heartless can bleed out and die, but I really don’t want to find out.

After just a few seconds of the wound being exposed to open air, I can’t take the pain anymore, and I place my hands back over my leg and squeeze hard, slowing the flow of blood and numbing the pain slightly.

“What are we gonna do about this? It hurts to much to fucking move and there are no Hearts around to heal it…” I groan. And just when I think it won’t get any worse, it does.

The sounds of fighting from inside the guard tower has stopped.

“Shit! They stopped fighting! M, you gotta get me up on the roof!” I shout. How long has it been since the fighting stopped? What if they’re about to head back out and they see us?

M nods her head, and then mutters a quick apology before hoisting me up in her arms. Trying, and failing, not to jostle me too much, she leaps up onto the top of the building just seconds before we hear the voice of Sora.

“Sorry Leon, there are other worlds calling. But we’ll be back soon ok?”

I hear the voice of what must be Leon reply, “Sure, see you around Sora.”

Seconds later, I hear the footsteps of people leaving.

“They’re leaving,” M says

“M, we gotta follow them, we need to look for our Nobodies on other worlds and right now they’re our only ticket off this one,” I hiss, still barely able to focus on much else than stopping the pain.

“But… your leg…” M says.

“We don’t have time to find a Heartless, if we don’t get on that Gummi Ship before they leave, we’re gonna be stuck here for a long time!” I shout, before groaning in pain again.

M stops for a moment.

“How did… no one mentioned a ship…”

Shit. Did I really say that?

“I’ll explain later, just follow them and get us on their ship.”

M hesitates, and then nods, scooping me up in her arms gain and taking off after Sora and his friends.

M tries to carry me gently, but because we have to stick to rooftops she jumps a lot and jostles me repeatedly, causing shocks of pain to shoot through my injured leg. The pain quickly becomes too much for me, and I pass out.

* * *

When I wake up, it’s because I’ve been slammed into a wall. Gripping my head, I wearily open my eyes, and find myself in a small air vent with a grate on one side letting light in. Suddenly a loud boom sounds and the room violently rattles again, and my leg starts to hurt again. I groan out a curse, and hear a voice to my left.

“Everett? Are you awake?” M’s voice comes from somewhere to my right.

“Ugh… Yeah… Where are we?”

“We’re on a ship, I managed to sneak us inside and-" The room rattles again. “-and I think we’re being shot at by something.”

That must mean we’re on a route to another world. Good, maybe we’ll find some of our friends while we’re there.

M speaks again, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I wrapped up your leg up as best I could, but there wasn’t much I could use…”

I look down at my leg and find it wrapped up in a cloth that was probably white when it was first put on, but is currently stained a deep purple.

Yikes.

Looking at the wound causes it to start hurting again, but the pressure from the bandage helped keep it a little numb.

We sit in silence for a while, with the only sounds being the rattling of the ship and the occasional lurching from the fast turns. After some time, M speaks up.

“Hey… I’ve been meaning to ask… How do you know about all this stuff? You knew about Sora, about the Nobodies, this ship… how?”

Before I can even think about whether or not the tell the truth, I find myself blurting out what is probably the worst possible lie in the world.

“Uh, I just… ran into them before? Like, you know…” And now I have nothing else to say to keep it up. Good going idiot.

M, understandably, doesn't look like she believes the lie at all.

I take a deep breath. 

“Okay, so that was obviously a lie,” I say. “Let me try that again.”

I take another breath.

“Okay. So. You know how Heartless are born when someone loses their Hearts to the Darkness, right?”

“...Yeah?” M tilts her head.

“Well, before, in the past, I mean. I was a just a kid in college. And um you see there was this… this game. It was about a boy who lost his world, and was on a journey to find his friends and stop this villain from opening a doorway to a place called Kingdom Hearts. And uh, the weapon he wielded was called… the Keyblade.”

M blinks. “Are you saying that where you’re from, this whole thing is just game?”

“Um… yeah?” I answer slowly. “And um, we’re in the middle of the events of one of the games, the second one. And uh, it turned out to be more real than I thought, cause um… uh… well...” I trail off, suddenly finding the walls to be much more interesting than this train wreck of a conversation.

We sit in silence for a few more minutes. I try to keep from looking at M the whole time, not really wanting to see how she’ll react to what I said. Would she get mad? I just told her that this whole thing is a game! What if she doesn’t believe me? Just assumes I’m lying? Ugh, I wish I could just curl up in a ball and die, anything to get out this situation...

“So… if you know what’s going to happen, what are you going to do?” I hear M ask me.

“Nothing,” I say. I’ve really got no business trying to interfere when everything is going to turn out fine, and lord knows the last thing the series need is a group of Heartless running around saving the day. “I just wanna find my friends and get home without interfering with the story.”

“...Do you know where they are?”

I sigh. “Not really, when I woke up in the Realm of Darkness, I was the only one around. They could be anywhere. But…” I trail off, not really sure if I should voice my assumption.

“But?” M questions.

“Well… I was thinking that uh, you… might be one of them?”

M stills, as if she is slightly taken aback by the thought.

“Well, cause, you know, you said that I was familiar when we first met, and well, it kinda made sense at the time and…” I stop, not knowing what to say next.

M looks like she is going to say something, but the sounds of the dogfighting outside stopping and the sensation of the ship starting to slow down grabs our attention.

“We must be landing,” I say. “We should get ready to get off this thing.”

“Right, let’s go,” M says.

* * *

We listen for the sounds of Sora and his friends leaving the ship before we even think of leaving ourselves. M removes the grate of the tiny vent we hid inside and helps me crawl out before putting it back. Quietly, we open the door that leads out of the ship, making sure to close it behind us before wandering off quietly.

The world we’ve landed on seems to be a very large grove of bamboo shoots, but there doesn’t seem to be much else as we keep walking in silence (well, more like M holding on to me while I limp awkwardly).

As we travel, the silence between us starts getting more and more oppressive, as neither of us want to address the proverbial elephant in the room. Mentally, I start berating myself for even mentioning anything.

Why did I say that last bit? It wasn’t necessary at all and now I made things weird between us. Why couldn’t I just keep my fucking mouth shut and leave that bit out! I probably ruined our budding friendship…

I’ve gotta be the one to say something, since I’m the one who caused this. I gather my thoughts, and start to speak.

“Hey uh, M? I’m sorry about… saying that last bit. I shouldn’t have, I mean, you lost your memories, and getting your hopes up over something that may not be true was pretty shitty of me and there’s always the possibility that you’re probably just someone I ran into on the street once or something or…” I trail off, realizing I’m rambling.

Fuck, I probably made it worse.

“No no, it’s fine. It just threw me for a loop…” M trails off for a moment as well, trying to figure out what to say.

“It’s just, I kind of hope that you were right. About us being friends before all of… this.”

“Huh?” I certainly didn’t expect that response.

“It just seems like, it would be right… Like, part of me feels as if we were good friends at some point.”

I relax, glad that I didn’t just ruin our friendship five minutes ago.

“...I hope we were,” I say, before another, more comfortable silence falls over us.

* * *

After about fifteen more minutes of traveling, a pair of Lights enter my senses, and we start to hear the voice of someone talking.

“See that, Mulan? That’s Shaun-Yu, leader of the Hun army! C’mon girl. This is your big chance!”

Mulan? That must mean we’re in The Land of Dragons. I think we’re at the introduction in game, which means Sora isn’t too far off.

“M, we should be quiet, Sora isn’t too far away from here,” I whisper.

M nods, and carefully sets me down before crouching down herself. Even though we can definitely hear what must be Mushu, we can’t see anyone through the thick curtain of bamboo shoots. Hopefully, they should give us more than enough cover when Sora comes running in.

Soon enough Sora and crew comes barreling through, and after greeting Mushu and being introduced to Mulan (or uh, Ping), Mushu manages to rope them into helping Mulan sneak into the army and make a name for themselves. After they agree to help, we can hear their footsteps fading away as they walk off.

“Okay, they’re gone, we should be able to move again,” I say. M helps me up, and I let out a small hiss as weight is put back on my injured leg. 

Damn, I hope we find some Heartless. The sooner I can heal this leg, the better.


	8. Getting Down to a Different Kind of Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry about the weird hiatus out of nowhere, things got a bit... much. But I'm here now, and with a new chapter!

It’s been at least a half hour, and we still haven’t found anything.

My leg has been killing me with all the walking, and even though we’ve been taking short rests, it still acts up every few minutes. It feels a little warm too, meaning it’s probably started bleeding a little again as well. I don’t think Heartless can get infections, but bleeding all over the place is something I’d very much like to avoid.

Everything’s been fairly quiet as well, which is annoying, because we’re actively looking for Heartless and there aren’t any anywhere. We need to get a Heart from one of them if I want my leg to heal, so of course that means we’ll have trouble finding any of them. Why is it that whenever you actually need to find something, it’s never around?

As we sit down on a few rocks to rest my leg for a little bit more, I can’t help but get a little let down.

“This is hopeless,” I mumble. “We’re never going to find any Heartless at this rate.”

M reaches over and pats me on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll run into some soon.”

“I know… it’s just that Heartless are literally everywhere, and somehow we’ve managed to run into exactly zero of them on this world.”

“Well, I’m sure there will be some just around the next corner!” 

I heave a small sigh. “Maybe we should have stuck to the actual route. We definitely would have found some by now.”

“But then we would have risked running into… Sora.” 

“You’re right…”

We sit for a few more minutes, and the throbbing in my leg dies down to almost nothing.

“Alright, my leg feels a lot better,” I reach out with my hands. “Can you help me up?”

M stands up, and hoists me up, holding me steady, and we start walking again.

* * *

After forty more minutes with two more breaks thrown in, we come across a small clearing with a tiny body of water. There were a couple of marked paths out of the area, one of which was blocked off by a large gate and a fence.

“Huh, we managed to get back onto the path,” I comment offhandedly.

“Really?” M asks.

“Yeah, look, past that fence is the emperor’s palace. See?” I say, pointing off toward the large set of buildings way off in the distance.

“Should we head over there?”

“Nah,” I answer. “Those doors are still closed, which means that Sora hasn’t headed out there to save the emperor from the Heartless that head over there later.”

I point towards the path that leads up towards the mountains. “Let’s go that way, there should be plenty of Heartless for us to hunt.”

“Will… Sora be up there?” M asks.

“He’ll have passed through a while ago. We’ve been walking for, what, an hour and a half? We shouldn’t run into him. He won’t have a reason to come back down this way for a while.”

“Alright,” M says. With that, we slowly start trudging up the rocky path.

* * *

We made it partway up the path when we ran into our first Heartless. It was a regular Shadow, and seemed to just be looking around, trying to figure out to traverse the somewhat difficult terrain. When we ran into them, M slowly sat me down on the ground.

“Wait here, I’ll handle this,” M said before breaking out into a sprint.

She barrelled right into the Shadow, and quickly plunged her claws into its head, killing it and releasing a tiny Heart. Walking back over to me, Heart in hand, she gives it to me.

“Here,” she says, “This should do the trick.”

Nodding, I take the tiny Heart from her, and swallow it down, letting its Light flow through my body and heal me.

Ugh, that one was so small…

The Light spreading throughout my body quickly focused in on my injured leg, and it started to warm up as the wound underneath the bandage rapidly started to heal. When the warmth faded away, I slowly removed the bandage with M’s help. When the last of the wrappings fell away, we both looked at the results.

The cut had healed...mostly. While the injury no longer hurt at all, a long, light purple scar could be seen running up the bottom half of my leg.

“Damn.”

“Why didn’t it heal all the way?” M asked out loud.

“Who knows. It could have been because of how long it took to heal, or it could have been the fact that the first Heart we found was so small. It could have even been a combination of the two factors.” I can’t really complain, since I’ll actually be able to stand on my feet by myself again, but it does kind of suck that I’ll be stuck with that scar.

“It’s not like it matters that much anyway,” I say. “We’re bound to get plenty of scars as we keep fighting.”

“I guess you’re right, but there’s no need to be so nonchalant about it,” M replies.

“Fair enough. But enough about potential scars, we should get moving again. We’ve got friends to find, bodies to get back, and Heartless to kill!” And with that, we were moving again through the mountain path.

* * *

You know, one thing they don’t tell you about these mountain paths is that they’re a lot rockier when you actually have to walk through them yourself. Even though our bodies can take much more punishment than a normal human, the thousands of rocks littered throughout the path were digging into my feet, causing them to start aching a little. The sensation wasn’t that far off from walking over rocks with thin soles on the bottom of old shoes. The large rocks that were littered throughout the long, winding path also made things much slower. If I still had my body, I probably would have dropped in exhaustion a while ago.

A chill wind blows through the path, causing both M and I to shiver slightly from the cold.

“I hate this,” I mutter. “Next chance I get, I’m grabbing a jacket.”

I hear M reply from beside me. “Get a jacket from where? We don’t have money.”

“I’ll just steal one.”

M gives me a look.

“What?” I say. “We’re Heartless. Even if we had money, who would sell to us?”

We don’t get to converse more, because we hear the telltale pops of Heartless exiting from the Corridors of Darkness.

“Ugh, we’ve got to learn how to do that,” I mumble to myself as we take in our prey.

It was a group of five Heartless. They were tiny blue bats with hooks dangling from a chain attached to their bodies. They also each had the emblem of the Heartless emblazoned on their torsos. These Heartless were called, unoriginally, Hook Bats.

“Do you know how to deal with these things?” M whispers to me.

“Yeah, they can be pretty hard to hit since they’re agile, but if you can grab on to their hooks, you can use them as a weapon to hit the others.”

M nods to me.

“Alright, you ready?” I ask.

“Ready.”

“Let’s go.”

With that, we moved in to attack them. They were hovering up on a large rock, so we had to climb it first, but once we got up there we moved on the offensive.

Quickly, I raked my claws down the middle of one of the bats, seriously injuring it and causing it to fall to the ground. From there, I stomped down on it as hard as I could, crushing it underfoot. Quickly, I snapped up the Heart that was released and gulped it down, not having time to savor the taste before moving again.

The Hook Bats were startled by my actions, and that moment's hesitation cost them when M leapt up and grabbed one of them by its hook. Surprised, the Heartless tried to struggle, but M tightened her grip on the hook, and the Heartless attached to it went rigid. M started flailing around with the Heartless in her hand, slingling it in numerous directions, nailing two of the others and sending them flying. One came my way, and I slammed it to the ground with my fist, following through with a claw to the head, releasing the Heart inside. The other one slammed into a rock and flopped to the ground, dazed. M slammed the Heartless trapped in her grip into the one still on the ground, dispersing both of them, and swiftly stuffed both Hearts into her mouth at once.

Snatching the Heart from the second Heartless I killed out of the air, I quickly swallowed it and started scanning for anymore Hook Bats. Quickly doing some mental math in my head, I realize that there were five Heartless, and we only killed four. So where is…?

Ah, I found it, and it’s trying to run away.

Wait, fuck! It’s trying to get away!

“M! We gotta catch that Heartless!” I shout. If that thing gets away, I don’t even want to think of the consequences. If Maleficent finds out that there are rogue Heartless, we’ll start getting swamped with hostiles. Or worse, she might come after us herself, and we don’t have enough firepower for that!

I run as fast as I can to try to catch it before it can get away, but it got a pretty big headstart on both of us. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see M practically on all fours as if it would help her get to it faster, but already I could tell that neither of us were going to be able to keep it from getting away.

As it flies over the edge of the rock we were on, it as though there was nothing we were going to be able to stop to stop its escape, when suddenly I felt a surge of warmth and power well up inside of me, and then I was going a lot faster than I was before.

This strength… is this coming from the Hearts I’ve consumed?

Right now it doesn’t matter, with my newfound speed, I’ll definitely be able to catch that Heartless!

Reaching the edge of the rock we were on in seconds, I leapt forwards, rocketing towards the Hook Bat, claws ready to slice the thing to ribbons. I quickly close the distance, and bring my hand forward in a diagonal slash…

Only to claw at thin air, as the Heartless disappears mere moments before my attack could connect.

“NO!” I shout, eyes full of despair as I plummet to the ground. I barely land on my feet, but quickly fall to my knees in disbelief.

It got away. Soon enough there are going to be Heartless everywhere looking for us.

I failed.

M approached me from behind. “What are we going to do now?”

I sigh, standing up to face her.

“From now on, we have to assume every Heartless we run into is aware that we’re hunting them, and will actively move to attack us on sight. So, we’re going to train hard to avoid running into something we can’t handle.” I pause, thinking up a quick and simple routine.

“Okay, each night, we’re going to spend about an hour and a half working on various techniques. First, we’re going to master sinking into the ground. From my experience, you can hold it as long as you concentrate. It’ll make you a little faster and you won't be able to be harmed while intangible. I’ll show you how I do it tonight, and then we’ll experiment till we both get this down.”

“Are we still going to hunt other Heartless?” M asks.

“Yeah, we’re gonna keep doing that. More Hearts means more strength, and we need all the strength we can get.”

I look up, checking the Sun’s position. It was pretty late in the afternoon, and it looked like it was starting to go down.

“Right,” I say. “It doesn't look like the Sun is gonna be up for much longer, so we’ll keep going for another half hour before looking for a place to settle down.”

“Sounds good.”

* * *

We didn't run into any more Heartless before the Sun started getting really low, so we just started looking for a place to wait out the night.

We stumbled upon a small cave just as the moon started rising in the sky. It was completely empty, and it didn't look like anyone had been inside of it in a long time. It was perfect for us to spend the night in without having to worry about someone coming back down the path and spotting us.

We walk inside and I turn around to face M. “Alright, we should probably start practicing now. We’ll start with sinking into the ground.”

M nods. “So, how do you do it?”

“Well, I’ve been trying to figure it out myself to be honest with you. As far as I can tell, it comes from an intense desire to… uh… How do I word this? You need to like, will yourself to move through objects. Basically, you’re trying to no clip through things.”

M tilts her head in confusion. “...No… clip? What’s that?”

Oh boy.

“Ah, no clipping is this… this thing that happens in video games. It’s what happens when a game character moves, or clips through walls or other various objects in an environment.” Man, I forgot that M remembers literally nothing about her past, which means internet jokes are gonna go completely over her head.

M processes my explanation, and then nods her head. “I get it, so we are trying to ‘no clip’ through the floor.”

“That’s right. Infact, I’m sure once we get the hang of this, we’ll be able to hide inside walls as well.”

I take another step back. “Right, I’m going to go first, so you can see what it looks like. All I have to do is concentrate for a bit and…” After a moment, I quickly sink into the ground up to my knees. “...boom. I’ve gone into the ground. Well, at least a little bit. It should feel a little bit cool when you do it, like you’re standing in water.”

I rise back up out of the ground. “Okay, do you have any questions? Anything I didn’t explain well enough?” 

M thinks for a moment, and then speaks up. “When you concentrate, what are you thinking about?”

Oh, that’s a good question. What do I think about? “Um… I don’t really know myself? I just think about trying to clip into the ground. I’m not like, reaching for the energies inside myself or anything. I guess I figured that my intent would be good enough.”

M hums to herself, before nodding and closing her eyes in concentration. Several moments pass, but nothing seems to happen.

When she opens her eyes, she looks a little disappointed, as if she only just now realized how hard this was probably going to be.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” I say. “The only reason I even got it in the first place was because I… almost… died.”

Suddenly, those “I almost died” jokes aren’t so funny when you really did almost die.

I clear my throat. “A-anyways, let’s try something different. Maybe, if we associate the move with a word, it will be easier to pull it off. So let’s give the move a name.”

I think for a moment. What would be a good name? It needs to be simple, so it won’t take too long to recall it, Hm…

An idea comes to me, and I snap my fingers (or try to, anyway. Only having three fingers makes that surprisingly hard.)

“What about… Intangibility?”

M nods. “Sounds good.”

She closes her eyes and concentrates again, before taking a deep breath.

**“Intangibility.”**

Almost immediately after she says the word, her feet shimmer, and she sinks up to her ankles into the ground.

“Hey! You did it!” I shout.

M opens her eyes, and looks down at her feet. “Hey, I did it!”

Her legs start to shimmer a little.

“Oh be careful,” I say, “Make sure you don’t lose-”

Her feet get pushed back up out of the ground, and she falls flat on her face.

“...focus.”

I walk over to her as she picks herself up off the cave floor.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” M says, dusting herself off. “Let’s keep going.”

* * *

We kept going for a few more hours after that, and made pretty decent progress. I managed to sink all the way up to my waist. M was getting the hang of it even faster than I was, and had pretty much caught up to me in terms of progress, and managed to get all the way up to her thighs.

I guess having a name for a technique really does help with mastering it. It helps cement what you’re trying to do in your head, and makes it a bit easier to focus.

Deciding to take a small break, I walk towards the mouth of the cave we were in. Looking out into the sky, I saw that the moon was almost directly overhead.

Damn, did it really get that late?

Walking back into the cave, I call out to M.

“Uh, M? It’s getting pretty late. We should probably sleep.”

“I’m fine, you can sleep if you want,” M says, turning to look at me.

“Are you sure? You shouldn't tire yourself out.”

“I don’t need sleep, don’t worry about it.”

I look at her for a little while longer. Maybe Heartless don’t need sleep?

“...If you say so. I’m going to rest anyway. See you in the morning,” I say.

“Good night.”


	9. Rome May Not Burn in a Day, but a Village Does

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I would like to apologize for the long wait between chapters. Unfortunately, I was in a place where I couldn't update or write at all for a while (Which is pretty ironic, because I write several chapters ahead in order to avoid this kind of thing). But, I'm now in a place where I can start writing and updating this story again!
> 
> Once again, I would like to apologize for vanishing without any warning.
> 
> Now then, on with the chapter!

I wake up the next morning feeling somewhat well rested, but my arm is a little bit sore from sleeping on the hard ground. I sit up slowly, rubbing my arm to try to bring some feeling back to it. Looking over to my left, I see that M is still awake, sitting on the floor.

She notices me wake, and stands up to walk over to me. 

“Good morning,” she says.

“Morning,” I greet. “What time is it?”

“The Sun rose a little while ago.”

...That wasn’t as helpful as I thought it would be.

“So, did you sleep at all last night?” I ask.

M shakes her head. “Nope, I spent the whole time practicing.”

“Really? How much progress did you make?”

She perks up. “Oh I made lots! Take a look!”

M takes a deep breath.

**“Intangibility.”**

Almost immediately, M sinks all the way up to her shoulders. After a few seconds, she rises up out of the ground.

I start applauding her. “That was really great! You got super far!”

“Thanks. For some reason I can’t get any further through than this. I’ve been trying for the past hour or so, but I just can’t figure out why.”

I hum to myself. “Hm… That’s a good question. Maybe it just gets harder the more you sink into something?”

“Maybe…”

“Oh well,” I say. “We’ll figure it out eventually. And besides, if you’ve gotten that far along with Intangibility you’ll probably be able to dodge most attacks anyway.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Trust me. Anyways, we should get moving again.” I stand up, and we both start moving towards the mouth of the cave. Stepping outside, I can see that the Sun hasn’t risen that far in the sky. It’s probably only 7 or 8 in the morning, so we should have plenty of daylight to work with.

“Right, we have plenty of time to work with, so what say you and I go hunting for more Heartless?” I say.

“Sure, let’s go.”

We started traveling further up the mountain path at a steady pace. It was pretty quiet for a good while, with no Heartless in sight. Whether or not that was a good thing however, remained to be seen.

As time passed, it slowly started getting colder, and soon enough we started seeing snow on the ground.

“Ugh, I hate how cold it’s getting,” I muttered to myself.

“It isn’t that bad,” M says.

“I’m from Florida, I’m used to searing heat, not snow.”

“...Florida?”

Oh, right.

“Florida is the region of the world I was born in,” I elaborate. “It’s almost always incredibly hot there.”

“Oh.”

We keep walking for a few minutes in silence.

“...I wonder where I’m from…” I hear M question herself quietly.

I don’t say anything, getting the feeling that I wasn’t meant to hear that, but I still can’t help but feel bad for M. I still remember everything about my past, but M doesn’t know anything. Hell, for a while she barely knew enough to count as sentient. And the fact that I still know everything while she doesn’t even remember her own name…

I hope she remembers something soon.

Looking up, I’m pulled from my thoughts at the sight of black smoke rising into the sky further up the mountain path.

“M, look up ahead,” I say, pointing at the smoke. There’s only one thing up there that could be burning, and it’s the small village near the top of the mountain.

And right now it’s being attacked.

* * *

Running the rest of the way the mountain path, we made it to the end of the route, and the path rapidly opened up to a large, open area with a village in it. A village that was currently burning.

There were Heartless everywhere, and soldiers fighting everywhere in an attempt to save what was left, but they were losing badly. A Heartless that looked like a Jiangshi cornered one of the soldiers and drove one of its hands through their chest, ripping out their Heart. The Heart dissolved in a black, smoky cloud and the soldier rapidly shrank and transformed into a small Heartless that looked like a small bird in a Soldier’s helmet with a propeller on top. All around the burning village other warriors were succumbing to the same fate.

“M, we’ve gotta do something!” I whispered to her.

“What can we do? There are so many of them!” M whispers back.

“The captain of the army is in there, and he’s an important character in game! If he gets turned into a Heartless, the small change could cause this world to be lost! Look, we don’t have to save the whole village, it won’t survive the flames, but we at least have to make sure he lives till Sora can get back here.”

After several seconds, M slowly nods her head. “Alright, so how do we do this?”

“Well, the reason I wanted us to be so careful about fighting Heartless in the first place was to keep Maleficent from finding out about us, but since it’s likely she now knows about us, there’s no point in being so secretive. We’ll go in there, stick together, and take out as many of those things as we can. Don’t worry about being seen, it’s not too important anymore.”

I pause for a moment, thinking of anything else to say.

“Also, you see those little Shadow Copters (That definitely isn’t their name, but who cares)? They’re pretty weak, so one or two hits should take care of them. The bigger ones in the robes however, the Nightwalkers, those are a little trickier to deal with. They’re pretty fast, so be ready to dodge their attacks.”

“Got it,” M responds.

With that, we charge directly into the fray.

As we ran closer to the battlefield, several of the Heartless and soldiers noticed us. The Chinese soldiers braced themselves for our arrival but were startled when several of the Heartless started rushing towards us. 

Guess news travels fast amongst Heartless.

One of the Nightwalkers flung themselves at me, but the strike went wide as I used Intangibility to sink up to my torso to dodge under it. When it came back around for another strike, I rose swiftly back up out of the ground and snapped my leg up, nailing it in the face as it came close. Dazed, the Nightwalker couldn’t do anything to stop the claw I drove through its chest, grabbing hold and tearing out the Heart inside it. I barely had time to stuff it in my mouth before I had to jump to the side, dodging another Nightwalker.

The soldiers watching us snapped out of whatever stupor they were in and started attacking the Heartless again. A few managed to get some lucky hits in, striking weak points and dispersing them, but most of the soldiers weren’t doing much damage, if any, to the Heartless.

M and I tried our best to stick close to one other to provide support, but we were slowly being driven away from each other by the Heartless flinging themselves at us. They were coming so fast that most of the Hearts we were freeing got away because we had to quickly dodge attacks that were coming from seemingly every direction.

Every now and then I would catch glimpses of M doing her best to keep up with the Heartless attacking her. Dodging and weaving, using Intangibility every few seconds, and occasionally striking out at the Shadow Copters and Nightwalkers surrounding her. M was almost a blur as she tried to fight her way out of the small crowd that had formed around her.

I suddenly had to jump up into the air to dodge a dive bombing Shadow Copter, and used it as a stepping stone to dodge a swipe from a Nightwalker that came in from my right. It ended up hitting the Shadow Copter instead and killing it.

When I landed, I had to use Intangibility immediately the dodge a swipe from several Heartless. Thankfully, the attack gave me to opportunity to slip by the surrounding Heartless, and I managed to tear apart two of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the snatch up the Hearts that were released, and they quickly floated up out of reach.

After breaking free, I flung myself towards a Heartless sneaking up behind one of the soldiers. I tore through it in a single strike, and quickly grabbed the Heart that was released and scarfed it down before moving on to the next Heartless, slowly making my way back towards M.

Even though M and I were definitely helping thin out the throngs of Heartless, we were still losing pretty badly. I’d taken plenty of hits that I’d thankfully been able to heal up quickly with the Lights from the Hearts I’d devoured, but there wasn’t much left of the village that wasn’t burnt, and there must have only been twenty or so soldiers left, including the captain of the army, Li Shang.

I had almost made it all the way over to M, when I caught sight of a Shadow Copter getting ready to attack the captain from behind.

“Look out!” I shouted as I sprinted over to him, making as much noise as I could.

Even though I doubt he understood what I said, him turning towards the sound of my approach likely saved his life. When Li Shang turned, the change in position caused to Heartless barreling towards him to miss his head by mere centimeters. The Shadow Copter seemed surprised to miss, and ended up running face first into my claws, getting torn to shreds and dispersing in a burst of black smoke. 

Li Shang stared at me in confusion, likely surprised that I saved him. “What…”

I held a finger up to my face in a universal shushing motion, before jumping back into the fighting.

I don’t make it very far into the throng before a loud booming sound can be heard coming from outside the village. Looking behind me, I see a plume of smoke come shooting out of a cave just outside the village. If I remember correctly, that means Sora’s on his way back.

Guess that means it’s time for M and I to get out of here.

Making my way over to M as quickly as I can, slaying another Heartless as I get over to her, I grab onto her arm.

“Sora’s on his way back down. It’s time to go.” I say as I start pulling her along. We start weaving through the remaining Heartless and soldiers fighting and start heading down the mountain path.

* * *

Running back down the path, we didn’t meet any resistance as we made it all the way back to the small clearing at the bottom of the mountain trail.

“Okay,” I say. “We have plenty of time to kill before Sora comes down this way. Let’s rest here for a little.”

M nods, before sitting down at the edge of the small stream running through the clearing.

I sit down as well as the adrenaline running through me wears off, leaving me feeling exhausted. My entire body feels warm, as if I’d just run a marathon in the middle of summer. I’m pretty sure if I could, I’d be sweating bullets.

...Ew. Just thinking about it makes me feel sticky and gross. 

Speaking of which… I haven’t showered in days. Normally I would make sure I showered every night, but with all that’s happened… Aw man, I must smell really bad!

But where can I shower? This stream might help, but it’s really shallow, and without any water pressure I doubt it will do much.

I look over where the water is coming from. There’s a large boulder with tiny holes in it that let some of the water come through. It not a lot of water, but if I could find some way to open it up, then maybe I could take a proper shower.

Hm… Maybe…

I stood, walking over to the large rock. M looked over at me.

“Everett? Where are going?”

“Nowhere. I just want to test something,” I reply, stopping about two feet in front of the boulder.

I turn around, facing M.

“M? Do you know how Heartless are born?”

M tilts her head. “Um… no? Not really?”

“Well,” I say. “There are two ways for a Heartless to be created. First, when someone’s heart succumbs to the Darkness, it becomes… sort of locked away from them. They transform, as they are shrouded in Darkness, and become a Heartless. Secondly, when someone is attacked by a Heartless, their Hearts end up stolen, and this loss of a Heart, and the Light it provides, causes them the change into a Heartless.”

I pause, giving M time to process my explanation before continuing.

“Heartless are creatures of darkness, and yet, neither of us have actually tried to use it, have we?”

M shakes her head.

“Well, I’m going to try to use it, and see what happens.”

“What do you think is going to happen?” M asks.

“Who knows. Anything’s possible. But for now, I’m gonna keep it simple, and see what it does to physical attacks.”

I turn back to the rock, and take a deep breath, closing my eyes in concentration. I imagine that I’m falling into myself, searching for something.

After about a minute or two, I start to feel something. Several somethings in fact.

The first thing I find is the feeling of several small pings on the edge of my senses. They give off the sensation of a dull warmth, like a blanket fresh out of the dryer. It’s comforting, and yet, I get the feeling that if I’m not careful, I would get burned until I’m nothing but ash.

Those must be the Hearts I’ve consumed.

However, that isn't what I’m looking for, so I ignore it for now, and dig a little bit deeper.

I find what I’m looking for soon enough. A deep, dark energy calmly resting within me. It’s cool, and reminds me of coming inside to an air conditioned room and a nice drink. It’s refreshing, but I get the feeling that one false move and I could easily fall in and drown in it.

There’s no doubt about it. That’s the Darkness I’m looking for.

I gently reach out to it, trying to coax out just a little bit of its power. For a moment, it doesn't respond, and I pull a little bit harder. Still, there isn't any response.

Oh come on, I just need a little… Please? Anything?

Suddenly, a cool energy stirs up inside of me, steadily building. Behind me, I just barely make out the sound of M gasping. Opening my eyes, I see that both of my arms are covered in a dark, smokey miasma. That same energy is gently rising up from around my feet.

Looking back up, I rear back my fist, and punch the rock as hard as I can.

When it connects, several things happen. First, the energy around my hand explodes outward. Next, I put a huge crack in the wall where my strike landed.

Lastly, pain shoots through my hand like a thousand needles.

“OW! FUCK! Shit, that fucking hurt!” I shout at the top of my lungs, pulling back my injured hand. God, why did I think that wasn't going to hurt? I look down at my hand, and find that my knuckles are bruised, with purple splotches all over them.

I hiss, and shove the injured hand underneath the water.

“Oh jeez, are you okay?” M asks, concerned.

“I fine,” I say. “It’s not like I have any bones to break.”

Shit. That really hurt. I better have done some real damage to that rock or I’m going to be pissed.

Looking up at the rock, I find that I put a large crack in it, and the water is flowing a little bit faster. But it wasn’t fast enough.

Pulling my hand out of the water, I glare at the boulder, as if I could will it to break open further. I concentrate again, and reach inside myself, pulling on the Darkness once again. It comes easier this time, and I walk up to the boulder and lash out with my foot, driving the heel into the large crack.

This time, a section of the boulder crumbles, and water comes gushing out at a decent pressure. It’s not as warm as I would like, but it’s good enough.

Standing under the flowing water, I sigh as my muscles relax, feeling almost a week’s worth of grime wash away.

“...What are you doing?” M asks me.

“Showering,” I mumble, groaning as I stretch underneath the running water. So refreshing…

“Why?”

“Because it feels good and I want to be clean,” I say, scrubbing away. “When I’m done you’re getting under here.”

“What! But I’m fine! I don’t need to ‘shower’ or whatever it is you call it!” M protests.

“Oh no, you need one! It’s been nearly a week, and we’re covered in all sorts of gunk! You’re getting one even if I have to drag you under here myself!” I say.

“And how are you going to do that? You’re busy with yours right now!”

“Oh haven’t you heard? I just finished mine three seconds ago, and I’m about to make sure you take yours!” I say, stepping out from under the water.

With a yelp, M takes off running around the clearing, trying to keep me from catching her. I give chase, and soon enough we’re running laps around the clearing, laughing as we have fun together for the first time in a long time.

After a while, she slows down, and I catch up to her. Even as I drag her under the running water, we’re still laughing, unwinding after several days of running around and fighting.

It was… nice.


	10. Chapter 10: Surprisingly, Heartless Also Have Stations

After scrubbing M down as best I can without any soap, we sit down on the edge of the bank, relaxing some more. Neither of us really have anything to say, so we just sit in silence for a while. Time passes, and the only sounds are the occasional chirping of birds and the running water.

After a while though, I start getting antsy, wanting to find something to do. I start anxiously bouncing my leg up and down in an effort to stim. It doesn’t help much. Soon enough I start using Intangibility, repeatedly sinking into and rising back up out of the ground.

“What are you doing?” M asks me.

“Stimming, I’m getting antsy and need to do something,” I say, not stopping my repeated use of Intangibility.

“Oh,” she says, before looking down for a moment, starting to do it as well.

We continue on for a few moments, before I get an idea.

“I have an idea…” I mutter out loud.

“Is it going to be anything like the last one?” M says worriedly.

“No! Well, I don’t think so…” I mumble. Seriously, you injure your hand once, and suddenly everyone thinks you’re a walking disaster…

“Just… watch.” With that, I close my eyes and pull on my inner Darkness once again. It comes much easier than it did the first two times, but I still end up pulling a bit more on it than I would like.

I breathe out.

“Intangibility.”

I sink all the way into the ground, and the world around me is tinted in purple.

“Woah!” I hear M gasp.

I rise back up with a smile that reaches my eyes

“How did you get that so fast?” M asks.

“I figured that since we’re Heartless, Darkness is used in a lot of our skills. All I did was was actively pull on it as I used Intangibility. The Darkness made the whole process a lot easier. I think that we’re supposed to use it, but since we haven't, we’ve been having so much trouble learning new skills.”

“I think I get it,” M says. “So, how do you do it?”

“Ah, well, you just sort of…” I trail off, feeling several Lights from farther up the mountain trail.

“Someone’s coming, hide!” I hiss, before diving for the foliage surrounding the clearing.

A few seconds later, we hear sound of several pairs of boots as Captain Li Shang leads his soldiers through the gate on the other side of the clearing towards the emperor’s palace.

When they entered the clearing, I noticed something off about the soldiers. Their Lights seemed… dull. As though they were shrouded in something thick and dark.

I realize that their Hearts are imbalanced. And from the way they feel, those soldiers don’t have much longer before they become Heartless. I’d give them a few minutes at most.

When they disappear through the gate, I whisper to M.

“Did you feel that?”

“Yeah,” M whispers back. “What are we going to do?”

I hum to myself, thinking. Sora is definitely able to handle himself, and the palace is pretty open… There isn't anywhere there for us to hide and strike from the shadows, and if we get spotted…

“We aren't going to do anything,” I say.

M turns to me.

“Sora can handle this one himself, we don’t need to risk getting spotted. There’s barely any cover out there for us to use, and we’ll be screwed if we get caught over there. So we’re just going to wait for them to come back and sneak on to their ship.”

“So what do we do while we wait?” M asks.

“Let’s head somewhere where we can have a bit of privacy. I’m going to show you how to tap into your inner Darkness.”

I stand up. “Come on, I know just the place.

* * *

Leading the way through a winding path, M and I eventually reach an abandoned camp. It’s a decent size, with about two dozen tents enclosed in a hastily made wooden wall.

“This is where Captain Li Shang and his army stayed until they made it up to the village on the mountain side. They left these tents here and won’t be back to get them for a very long time,” I say, walking over to one of the larger tents. Opening the flap, I wave M inside.

“So for now,” I say. “We’re going to use them to stay out of sight.”

After making sure the front of the tent is zipped up, I sit down on the floor, and pat the space in front of me. M sits down, facing me.

“Alright, so um, using Darkness…” I gather my thoughts, before diving in to our little lesson.

“As creatures of Darkness, we Heartless have an affinity towards utilizing it. It might be a little tricky at first, but it’ll get easier to draw it out each time you use it. Just make sure you’re careful, and you should be fine. Remember, too much of anything can be bad, and trying to bite off more than you can chew is dangerous,” I pause, making sure M is paying attention.

“To start, I want you to close your eyes and relax. Then, concentrate on yourself. Let any distractions just flow around you. There should be two things you’ll be able to feel: the Light from the Hearts you’ve consumed, and your own inner Darkness. Just relax, and let me know if you find anything.”

M speaks up. “How will I know if I find anything?”

“The Light will feel warm, and the Darkness will feel cool. Both feel comforting, but there will be this sensation that you shouldn't get too close to them.”

M nods, and then closes her eyes in concentration. I watch for a while, waiting to see if anything will happen, when suddenly she’s outlined in a slight purple glow. Is this what it looks like to call on the Darkness?

The answer quickly becomes apparent when her face suddenly relaxes and she slumps over to the side, nearly falling over. She would have hit the floor if I hadn’t lunged forward and caught her.

“M? M! M wake up!” I shout, gently slapping the side of her face in an attempt to rouse her. She doesn’t even react.

As seconds pass, I start panicking, and the empty feeling in my chest starts spreading throughout my whole body, threatening to consume me.

Oh god… what if she’s dead? What if I just killed her? I tried to teach her how to use her powers and I killed her! I… I…

I feel my vision start to swim, and my head starts to feel a little hazy.

I wipe at my eyes, and try to steady my breathing (when did I start hyperventilating?) I barely manage to calm myself enough to avoid fainting myself.

I’m fine… M is fine… She hasn’t dissolved, her Heart hasn’t floated off into space, she isn’t dead.

She’ll wake up… she has to.

* * *

I don’t know entirely how much time passed. But eventually, the purple glow around M fades away, and she shoots up with a gasp.

“M! You’re alright!” I shout, crawling towards her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

M stares at me, and seems to be struggling to say something.

“I… I saw…” She says.

“What? What did you see?”

“I saw… my Heart…”

“...What?” I say in disbelief. She saw her Heart? 

“I did! It was so far away, but I knew what it was! It was mine and I need to get it!”

I’m still confused. “Woah woah, slow down. Start from the beginning. What exactly happened?”

“I did just what you said, and tried to find my Darkness. But I couldn’t find it, and I tried to go deeper and deeper, and then I was in this… weird place. But then I looked up and saw my Heart! It was really far away, but I could tell it was mine.”

M stops for a moment before continuing.

“But… there was this… strange mist around it… Like something was shrouding it, covering it up a little.”

Covering it? That must be the Darkness that stole our Hearts away. But how did she even…

Wait.

I think I know where she went. But before I do anything, I need to confirm it myself.

Before I get to say anything however, I hear several sets of footsteps outside of our tent.

M’s head snaps up towards the entrance to the tent. “Is that…?”

I shush her, before slowly inching towards the closed flap of tent and opening it a little. Looking out, I see Sora and his friends exiting the encampment, headed towards the bamboo forest.

“They’re getting ready to leave,” I mutter. I turn back to M.

“I think I know what happened, but if we don’t catch up with them, we’ll get left behind here. Let’s get on that ship, and then I’ll do my best to explain.”

M hesitates, and I can tell she wants an explanation now, but our need to not get left behind was far more important at the moment. She nods, but gives me a look that clearly shows that she expects an explanation the second we get on board.

Without another word, we dash out of the tent and up the trail into the forest, chasing after Sora.

* * *

After about ten minutes of hanging back and trying not to snap any branches on the path, we finally make it to the landed Gummi Ship. It is a simple design on the outside, and is colored in reds and yellows. If it wasn’t for the large guns on the side and the fact that we were in the middle of a forest, I would have thought it was some carnival attraction.

The door on the side of the ship opens, and Sora and his friends step inside. As the door starts to close, M and I rush forward and slip inside right before it can close completely. Moving quickly, we make our way back to the grate we hid ourselves in before.

Sitting down inside the vent, M quickly faces me, ready for an explanation.

“Right,” I say. “You want to know how I know where you went. Well, I’ll have to confirm it myself to confirm it, but I think you went to your Station of Awakening.”

M tilts her head. “Station of… Awakening?”

“It’s a representation of your Heart. What you likely saw was your Heart surrounded in the Darkness that keeps our Light away from us,” I explain.

“So… how do we get it back?” M asks me.

“There are two ways for us to become who we were before. The first way is for both the Heartless and the Nobody to die, which will allow the person they once were to come back from the Darkness. The second, more preferable way is for the Heartless and the Nobody to reunite, merging together and reforming into their whole selves.”

M processes what I’ve said, and then nods her head.

“Granted,” I say. “We still have to confirm that what you actually saw was your Station. So to do that, I’m going to try to reach mine.”

I take a deep breath, getting ready to concentrate.

“Oh, and M?”

“Yeah?”

“If I fall over, try to catch me before I split my head open on the floor.”

M probably nodded, but I didn’t see it, as I had already closed my eyes.

I relax, and soon all of my senses fall away.


	11. Announcement

Hey guys. So um, I'm in a bit of a weird place right now. And Im starting to become a little bit unsure that I can keep writing for this fic in its current form. So for now, this fic is going to go on haitus until I can figure out how to move forward.

But! I still do want to write fanfiction. So, I'm going to start another one and work on that! Still thinking about which one I want to do, cause I've got a really good idea for a Pokemon fanfic I want to write, but I also want to do another Kingdom Hearts one, and trying to do both probably isn't the best idea. But I'll figure it out soon.

So until then, I'll see you guys later!


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